


The Witchborn

by DarkyLonewolf



Category: Little Witch Academia
Genre: F/F, Fluff, I should have posted this here ages ago, Magical Pregnancy, Maybe some occasional drama, Years Later
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-29
Updated: 2019-02-14
Packaged: 2019-06-15 14:58:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 25,770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15415506
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkyLonewolf/pseuds/DarkyLonewolf
Summary: Akko and Sucy have been married for quite a while now, and so far had a pretty nice and quiet life... But at a certain point, Akko begins to feel like a little something is missing in their sort-of-family... And Sucy sure is glad to help.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Yikes... I should have posted this fic here as soon as I got an AO3 account. Buuuuuut I'm a lazy moron, so I ended up isolating it to fanfiction.net by accident. Anyway, all thanks go to Kaponos (fanfiction.net), symbiotic (Also fanfiction.net) and of course EmeraldSage86 for the main inspiration! While the first chapter is marked at the appropriate date, the same does not apply for the others I'm posting here, so, uh... Yeah.

"Whew. Didn't think that the clients would come flooding in just to stock up on hangover medicine, of all things." – Sucy remarked as she walked over to the doorsign on the alchemy shop she was working at, and changed the sign's inscription from "We're still open!" to "Sorry, we're closed" with a single wave of a wand. That was one of those mundane spells that she honestly gotten pretty used to over the past couple of years.

At the current time, Sucy Manbavaran was in about her mid-to-late twenties – maybe 26-27 years at most – , having had graduated more than a long while ago and now owning a potions shop of her own. This wasn't exactly a childhood dream of hers, despite the fact that her hobbies would tell one otherwise, but it's not like she hated the job either – she pretty much got to do what she was passionate about **and** get paid for it, so it was a win-win for her either way. Not to mention there were orders for some potions that were used for dealing with some…Delicate matters, and she was always paid extra to keep hush-hush about these orders, so that the only record of them would be just a couple lines in her list of latest potion orders, which she kept private even from her wife anyway.

Speaking of the puce-haired alchemist's wife…

Atsuko Kagari, as one could guess, was also in her mid-twenties – at about 25-26 years old – by now, and has certainly developed quite a bit over the years, but I won't go into detail about it because this isn't really **that** kind of story you're about to read. The most one would have to know about her is that, while she did work as a performer's assistant for quite a while, and even got to go through with a few performances of her own eventually, the Japanese witch ultimately decided against taking serious part in magical showbiz, as she felt rather sad about having to keep away from Sucy for prolonged times. While it was initially met with reluctance on Sucy's part, as the violette didn't want her wife to give up her dreams for her, the two eventually agreed that it would be better for both of them – as Akko put it, being away from Sucy made her feel like she had her magic drained all over again and then found out that she would never regain it – or, as Sucy simplified it, all empty inside. – and on the other side of the spectrum, whenever the brunette was away on another one of those tours, Sucy couldn't help but feel incredibly concerned for her, even if she was a tad less of an airhead than in her academy years – after all, with just how exhausted Akko looked whenever she finally had a chance to go back home and relax for a week or two, she couldn't help but wonder if this kind of work wasn't too stressful for the asian witch.

Nowadays, Akko opted for a more grounded, "stay-at-home" kind of life, usually helping Sucy out with her potions when necessary and doing the occasional housework. After the end of the "reluctant" phase, the violette seemed to be more than satisfied with this outcome, as being able to spend more time with her beloved was certainly quite a welcome change. Not to mention that Akko seemed to be a lot less exhausted all the time. And quite a bit more amorous, too, but once again, we'd much prefer to leave the details to that out.

All in all, the two witches were enjoying their life together, even despite the occasional difficulties that would come up.

On this particular day, however, things got a little…Interesting.

Recently, Sucy has been noticing that her wife seemed to be acting a tad strange. Every time they passed by a couple with a kid, Akko's usual cheerful smile briefly faded, and would only come back up again if there was something to distract her from the whole thing or if Sucy actually specifically brought it up – in the latter case, she said it's nothing too serious. There were also a few cases where, when the two witches were out for a walk, Akko insisted on veering into some areas where children would often play around, much to Sucy's confusion and slight annoyance. Overall, Akko was acting a bit weirder than usual.

So, on this specific day, when the two witches went back home from their usual work, Sucy once again noticed that her brunette wife looked a little forlorn all over again. The violette decided that enough is enough, and that she has to get to the bottom of this.

And thus, about an hour later, while Akko was busy washing dishes after dinner, the puce haired witch snuck up on her, grabbed on to her waist from behind, and asked concernedly: "What's the matter, bunny? You were looking so incredibly forlorn for the past few days. Is everything alright?"

"Huh? Oh, it's…Nothing worth your concern, that is for sure." – The brunette responded. Sucy could swear that at that moment, Akko even seemed a little…Flustered? She just chalked it off to close contact, and continued: "Are you having seconds thoughts about the fact that you gave up on magical showbiz?"

"No, of course not! I'm really glad that I made that choice! In fact…" – Akko blushed a bit. – "The source of my concern is actually far, far away from the **magical** matters."

This had piqued Sucy's interest, and she asked: "Hey, it's alright. Witches or not, we're still only human. So, what was it?"

"It's rather silly, you don't wanna know."

"No need to be so reluctant on me, guinea pig." – Sucy's hands seemed to have trailed a tad higher than they should have, which immediately made Akko tear herself out of the violette's grasp and ran off to the bedroom.

"Way to go, Manbavaran-Kagari." – Sucy thought to herself as she quietly followed her rather flustered wife to the bedroom. – "You just lost any and all chances of her telling you just what's been troubling her all this time."

As Sucy walked into the somewhat quiet bedroom, she noticed that Akko was just quietly sitting on the bed, with her chin on her hands, looking off into the window.

"Come on, Akko. If something is troubling you, you know I can help." – The alchemist remarked, walking over to her wife, who still seemed to have just as much of a blush on her face as when she ran off.

"Are you sure you're not going to get mad at me because of it?" – Akko asked, still rather flustered.

"Why would I?" – The violette asked back, confused.

"Well, you see…" – The incredibly flustered brunette twiddled her fingers, trying to find the right way to give out her question. Normally, even when it came to talking, she just charged in head-first without thinking. But right now was a rather delicate matter and she did not want to completely flunk it. – "I was actually thinking about… You know… Starting a proper family. As in, **having a child**."

"Oh." – That was all that Sucy could muster at the current moment as a response. After a few moments of awkward quietness, she continued: "And here I thought you'd never bring that up." – Her words trailed off into an uncomfortable silence, as she herself had a distinct blush on her cheeks as well. – "But you do know that's quite a bit of extra responsibility for both of us, right?"

"Of course I do, and I know we can handle it. It's just that… We've been together for quite a while now… And…I thought that maybe we should take it to the next logical step after all. " – Akko certainly had difficulty choosing the right words, as she still seemed to be incredibly flustered. – "Of course, if you think that maybe we're not quite ready for it, then…"

"No-no-no, it's… It's alright. It's fine. " – Sucy placed her hand on her wife's, and quietly continued: "If that would make you happy, then I'll be sure to comply."

"Really? Thank you, Suce!" – The brunette responded, hugging her spouse as tightly as she could, which led to quite a bit of pained grunting courtesy of Sucy.

"Alright, alright, we'll go over to a nearby orphanage and you'll check for the right candidates yourself." – Before Sucy could stand up from the bed, Akko pulled her right on down.

"Actually… Didn't you have a recipe for a particular potion that would pretty much allow a woman to conceive a child without any sexual intercourse involved?" – The brunette asked. The alchemist confusedly looked at her and responded: "Well, yes, I've actually sold a few vials of this potion to a few couples as part of my "private orders" list, but… Don't you think that's a bit too much extra trouble?"

"Look, I have nothing against orphans, but it's just… Didn't you also say that, if one were to add a taglock from a particular person to that potion, then the resulting child would also inherit the taglocked person's traits as well?" – Akko leaned closer. – "I want that child to really be **ours** , you know."

Sucy let out a defeated sigh. There's just no re-convincing her wife. Not that she was mad at her or anything – if anything, she learned to accept her sheer stubborn-ness even before they got married. So, afterwards, the violette remarked: "Well, I know there's no reconvincing you. But we still have to determine whose taglock will be used and who will be the one carrying that burden."

The brunette didn't take long with her answer: "Guess it has to be me taking that risk then. After all, I am the _uke_ in this relationship. "

Sucy quietly sighed – with that one sounding a tad less defeated – and added: "Very well then. I'll get to working on that potion tomorrow, and add my taglock to it once it's done. I'm sure a single tiny drop of blood would be more than enough. For now, I'm a tad too tired."

* * *

Throughout the next day and up until that day's evening, Akko was rather excited for what was coming up later. The brunette spent most of the day flying around town on her broom to pass time – hey, considering that she was a lot more proficient in flight than in her academy years now, she had her right to spend her time that way anyway – only ever landing near shops to buy a few necessary things so that she at least wouldn't be coming back home empty-handed.

By the time she was back home at evening and went to check on Sucy in her potion laboratory, the violette was already pouring the light purple colored potion into a clean unlabeled vial.

"And here I thought you were going to be late again. Talk about a flunked guess. " – Sucy remarked as she cast a quick spell to clear the remaining fumes out of the brewing laboratory and took off her gas mask.

"So, is the potion ready?" – Akko asked, still standing in the doorway.

"Just about. All I need to do right now is add in the taglock, and we should be all set. " – The alchemist responded, reaching over for a clean needle and slightly pricking her finger, then adding a single drop of her blood into the vial and stirring it within for a bit. After the slight drop of blood seemed to dissipate within the odd liquid completely, the violette handed Akko the vial and said: "Look, if you're having second thoughts about this, then maybe we can save that potion for a later time."

"No need to do that. I know that I'm most certainly ready, Sucy." – Akko responded, in a more serious tone than what one would normally hear from her. The puce-haired witch sighed and continued as her wife took the odd potion from her hands: "Very well then, bottoms up."

When Akko just slightly smelled the odd concoction, she noted that this particular potion didn't smell like any of Sucy's usual stuff. In fact, the smell seemed to be a pleasant and sweet one. Taking a deep breath beforehand, Akko downed the entire thing in just about one go. The effects didn't seem all that obvious at first – considering that this potion was designed for conception alone, and not for sped up gestation, this was kind of to be expected. In fact, the only indication Akko got that the potion seemed to be working was a slight, almost unnatural warmth in her stomach area.

As Sucy took the now empty vial from Akko's hands and tossed it into the cleaning tray, she only had one thing to say:

_"This might have just been the boldest of your decisions._


	2. Mood Swings and Aches

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first few months of a pregnancy are always the most troubling ones, so, naturally, shenanigans ensue. Akko may not be regretting her decision, but there's sure some weirdness to get used to now...

(Current in-story month: June)  
As it turned out, Sucy's potion worked just perfectly, and thus Akko actually ended up bearing the alchemist's child. And sure enough, all the usual problems of early pregnancy followed suit.

While Sucy did manage to help her wife out with morning sickness problems – which was an easy one to solve, as it, strangely enough, most commonly seemed to come up whenever Akko was exposed to any particularly strong smells, so Sucy usually let her off out for a walk while she herself was busy working on potions. – some other things, like cravings and mood swings, were a tad harder to handle.

On one particular Saturday, for example, Akko had actually requested some of the more exotic fruits for dessert instead of the usual fare. And when Sucy came back with these, while Akko seemed to chow down on them like no tomorrow, one fruit in particular was immediately tossed by her at a nearby wall as she shouted out, quote-to-quote, "I can't believe I was craving something that tastes **this** badly!". Oh well, said fruit was inexpensive anyways.

As for the moodswings problem… Come to think of it, that was in a league of it's own entirely. From Akko lamenting on about how much everything about the pregnancy itself sucks, especially the morning sickness, to the occasional angry outbursts caused by Sucy accidentally saying something wrong at the wrong time, to the brunette actually feeling uncharacteristically cheerful – oh wait, that was part of Akko's usual fare anyway.

As a more specific example, on one particular weekday, something went a little too awry when Sucy attempted to tell Akko to slow down when she was busy snacking on pickled plums – apparently, the brunette still felt hungry even after dinner, so she pretty much reached for the first thing available. Needless to say, this seemed to set off a mood swing in Akko, and…

"Oh, I'm not even one month along, and yet you already call me **fat**?! Is that what you meant?!" – The asian witch shouted as she slammed both her hands on the table and stood up.

"That's not what I was getting at, Akko!" – Sucy replied, feeling a little unnerved, but it seemed like Akko wasn't listening and was going on about with whatever caused her mood swing.

"I've just about had it up to here-" – Akko gestured to her neck with her hand. – "-with all of this, Manbavaran-Kagari! You-" – Before the pregnant brunette continued her thought any further, she was interrupted by a sudden stomach ache. Clutching her abdominal area, Akko remarked in a still angry but somewhat subdued tone: "Of course, of all the times to get an ache, it just **had** to be right now!"

Sucy sighed at the whole situation, and briefly wondered just how much more problematic a girl that's pretty much established the "very definition of trouble" title behind herself can get during pregnancy.

"Okay, okay, calm down now." – The alchemist remarked as Akko leaned onto her shoulder and they walked over to the living room. – "I guess it would be best for you to just sit down for the time being."

While Akko was sitting on the living room couch, waiting out the ache, Sucy quietly walked over to her and said: "What I was getting at, bunny, is that I didn't want you to choke on your food. Or, you know, overeat to the point of a bellyache. Hopefully those plums won't come right back out the way they came in."

"Suce, you're not helping." – Seems like the mood swing hadn't dissipated yet. Guess Sucy had to get a little creative with alleviating her wife's hormone-induced anger.

"Alright, what do you say if, when your bellyache stops, we go out for a quick walk around town? Can't fly around on a broom all the time, you know." – Sucy asked, sitting down next to her wife. Akko sighed and remarked: "Actually, the pain seems to be more of a dull one by now instead of an outright sharp. So I'm sure that- Uh-oh."

As Akko ran off to the bathroom and the all-too-familiar retching sounds came from the place, Sucy groaned and wondered just how utterly predictable her wife can be at times.

"Troublesome **and** predictable. Oh well. "

* * *

Quite a bit of time later, the two witches went out for a quiet walk across town. The sun was already setting by now, and thus most of the town's residents just preferred to get back to their houses. Honestly, Sucy felt incredibly glad that she and Akko settled in a quiet, remote suburban area. No car noises, no factory fumes, no dull blocky tall buildings…

"Hey, what's the matter, sugar?"

 **Goddamit**. It's been more than ten years already, and Sucy's still hadn't gotten used to that pet name courtesy of her wife. Partly because she felt like it greatly clashed with her personality, partly because it kind of still made her flustered as all hell.

"Nothing in particular, guinea pig." – The alchemist quietly responded as they continued their quiet walk around town.

Akko didn't ask any further questions. Her trail of thought turned back to her decision about resigning from her position as a magical performer.

Truly, the asian witch wouldn't be sharing such a sweet moment with Sucy right now if she were to continue on with her career. The primary motivation for her magic shows was not money or any sort of career – if anything, she just wanted to make people happy with her performances. And as much as she missed her adoring fans, she had to admit that those millions of smiles couldn't compare to a single genuine, caring smile from Sucy.

Akko certainly wouldn't be starting a proper family with that career getting in the way of her family life, that is for sure.

"Well, I suppose we'd better call it a day and head on home." – Guess it was Sucy's turn to get Akko out of her thoughts. And, as much as the violette wanted to tease her wife about her daydreaming, she figured that maybe it was better for her not to step into a mandrake field all over again.

"Oh, right… Yeah, let's go now."

* * *

Having had taken care of their pre-bed routine, the two witches were now quietly lying in their bed, idly chattering. However, at a certain point, Akko must have had another of her mood swings, because one of her questions kind of gave Sucy a bit of a heart chill.

"Suce… Am I really such a big source of trouble?" – The brunette asked in a somewhat sad tone. Luckily for Sucy, she didn't take long to come up with an answer that would be both plausible and wouldn't make her wife worry even more than she already does.

"I can't say much about the "big" part yet – that will be more relevant in a few months, if anything – but no matter how much trouble you seem to cause, I know it's not your fault. If anything, I know that's just the way you are, and I've certainly come to appreciate that little quirk of yours as well." – The violette quietly responded, and pulled her wife closer in for a hug. – "I suggest we don't give it much thought for now."

"I wonder if our kid's going to be as much of a troublemaker as I am, or a calm and collected person like you?" – Akko asked sleepily.

Sucy couldn't help but chuckle at that question. Sure, she always presumed that personality was usually the end result of one's upbringing, and not something genetic, but…

"Can't say for sure, I've had straight C's in Fortune Telling. But I get the feeling that if the latter one were the case, then it would be boring as hell."

All Akko could muster for a response was a sleepy giggle before she drifted off to sleep.


	3. Low Pressure and Visits

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The hot July weather isn't doing Akko any good, but she still tries her best to put up with it. On one particular day, two of her and Sucy's close friends drop by for a visit, finding out about Akko's pregnancy and announcing their plans for later.

(Current in-story month: July, duh)  
Honestly, the second month wasn't going any better for Akko. In fact, it only began getting worse – not only did the incredibly hot July weather begin to get on her nerves, which prompted more mood swings, but there were actually a few moments when the brunette would feel rather light-headed or outright fainted. Thus, it was understandable that recently, Akko was spending more time at home, usually only doing the occasional housework, as working with Sucy's potions was out of the question in her current state.

"By Yggdrasil, this summer is even worse than the last one. Had it not been for the cooling enchantment I placed on various objects throughout the house, I think you wouldn't have been the only constantly fainting person here." – Sucy remarked as she took her gas mask off and sat down next to Akko on the couch.

"I can't even set foot outside without giving out from the heat!" – The brunette whined, lying on her back. After a few more moments of relative quiet, she added: "What were you working on today, anyway?"

"Eh, just another batch of cooling potions." – The violette remarked, pointing to a rather sizable box of bottles with icy blue liquid in them that she had currently placed down on the floor. – "These seem to be getting bought out like no tomorrow. I'd give you a sample, buuuuut I've heard that this draught some nasty side effects in pregnant women."

"Like what, the possibility of giving birth to a Yuki-onna?" – Akko remarked, giving out a half-hearted giggle at her own joke.

Heck, even Sucy couldn't help but snicker at that one. Although she did speak up in a more serious tone afterwards: "I was thinking it would probably be something more mundane, like a miscarriage." – She was actually speaking the truth, as some of the stabilizers in that batch of cooling potions weren't exactly safe for consumption by pregnant women, even if said stabilizers were heavily distilled within the mixture. Standing up from the couch and picking the box back up, Sucy continued: "Welp, I'm off to the shop for the time being. Hopefully I'll be back by lunchtime, although it might take a little longer. Don't do anything more stupid than usual, will ya, honey?" – The alchemist finished, her soft voice letting Akko know that she wasn't actually being mean with that remark. Sucy then gave her pregnant wife one more kiss on the cheek and then went to exit the house, hoping that the enchantment on the cooling amulet she currently wore would last just enough for her to tough the current potions shop shift out.

"As if I even have any energy to be doing anything stupid." – Akko deadpanned, sighing. Good thing the dizziness seemed to have begun diminishing, although the brunnete still didn't feel like doing anything anyway, so she decided to take a quick nap.

* * *

For the remainder of the day and at least up until lunchtime, Akko was mostly slacking off. Even after her quick and dreamless nap, she only ever got up just for the sake of taking care of some natural needs, and maybe some cleaning around the house. So, in other words, she really wasn't slacking off all that much anyway.

Having had washed her hands for the umpteenth time already and closing the door behind herself, Akko was just about to go back to the living room when she heard the doorbell ring. Wow, did she really run over to the washroom so often that she didn't even keep up with the flow of time and kept running around all the way to afternoon?

However, it turned out that it wasn't Sucy ringing the doorbell. Amanda and Lotte had actually come by for a visit.

"Oh, hi Akko. Sucy's stuck at work all over again?" – Amanda asked as soon as Akko opened the door.

"Yeah, she's busy selling off cooling potions." – The brunette replied, gesturing the two girls to come on in. – "So, why did you two come by?"

"Just for a quick visit, really." – Lotte answered to the asian witch's question. Then, looking at her for a few moments, she shyly added: "Say, Akko, you look a little… Disheveled. Is everything okay?"

Akko looked over herself a bit and noticed that her hair really was a complete and utter mess – she didn't even bother tying her signature half-do ponytail from the moment she woke up and for the remainder of the day. Not to mention that, aside from her undies, all she really had on herself was her tank top.

"Sorry, haven't been getting up for the remainder of the day. The weather's not doing me any favors, that is for sure. I'll be right back." – With that said, Akko quickly ran off back to her and Sucy's shared bedroom, quickly put on her usual casual clothes – a light violet t-shirt with "I have the hots for a Filipino" written on it – she actually worn that one unironically quite often, as it was one specifically commissioned by Sucy as an anniversary gift, not to mention that the violette herself had a matching light brown t-shirt with "I'm really into this _shoujo_ over here." written on it, with the word " _shoujo_ " actually written in both kanji and transcript one above another. – and some rather simple denim shorts, while all she had on for footwear were light pink slippers.

While Akko invited the two girls over to the kitchen and later went on to make some tea, Lotte asked: "So, how were you two doing so far? You actually told me over the phone just about a month or so ago that you've had some rather exciting news, but then ran off for some reason. And when you came back, you seemed to be breathing heavily, and said that you'll tell us later. "

Right… Akko did want to tell them that she and Sucy were going to have a baby, but her morning sickness just had to butt in and ruin the conversation. And telling them in person that she used one of Sucy's potions to conceive a baby was… A little bit awkward, to say the least.

"Right, about the news… You see, I, uh…"

"You know, you two could have at least bothered to close the door behind yourselves." – A familiar deadpan tone rang from somewhere.

Right now, Akko was unsure whether to thank Sucy for sparing her the embarrassment of telling about a potion-induced pregnancy, or to curse her for not letting her just go ahead and tell the news.

"Oh, hey there, Suce. Weren't you going to be away at your shop for the remainder of the day?" – Amanda asked, a little curious. Sucy groaned and looked over at Akko, who just shrugged and remarked: "Well, I was busy trying to tell them something else entirely, so I may have forgot to mention that. Sorry."

"Eh, it's alright. I know you're even more absent-minded than usual these days, especially considering your current **state.** " – Sucy responded, walking over to Akko and giving her a soft hug.

" **State?** " – Amanda repeated, a little confused. Sucy couldn't help but giggle.

"Oh me, oh my, Akko. Did you really have this much trouble telling them that you're pregnant?" – The violette remarked, lightly stroking the brunette's belly.

" **Say what now?!** " – Amanda shouted out.

"Yes, well…That's a bit of a long story…" – Akko nervously replied. On the other hand, that just presented her an opportunity to tell the whole story as it is.

* * *

"And, well, this is how I ended up in this state. But I assure you, it was entirely voluntary on my part." – The Japanese witch said, finishing her story.

"Well then… Congrats to the parents-to-be!" – Amanda gave Akko a light shoulder jab as she said that. Then, after a few moments, she remarked: "Although I don't see any real need to go to such trouble if you could, you know, just go on and adopt some lucky kid from the orphanage."

"Well, she insisted that the kid would really be **ours**. Our flesh and blood, so to speak." – Sucy remarked, stroking Akko's belly which, while it wasn't very noticeably distended, still had just a tiny bump that one wouldn't really notice unless they looked hard enough.

"You **really** have to put everything in a morbid light, don't you now, Suce?" – Akko asked, giving Sucy a rather annoyed glare. The violette shrugged and decided to just change the subject: "So anyway, how was your family life doing so far, you two redheads?"

"Eh, I'd say it's fine. I'm getting just enough money from my job as a Broom Riding teacher in Luna Nova, and Lotte is actually going to publish one of her first books pretty soon." – Then, in a somewhat less enthusiastic tone, the Irish-American redhead whispered to Sucy and Akko: "She said it was inspired by Nightfall. I mean no offense, but something's telling me it's probably going to end up just as cheesy as the originals."

Akko couldn't help but groan the moment she heard Amanda mention those dreaded book series. She wasn't one to disrespect anyone's tastes, but honestly, even after all these years, she had a hard time understanding why people liked the Nightfall series so much even after they were **finally** concluded at least 5 years ago.

Lotte, meanwhile, decided to continue where her redhead wife left off: "While the book was inspired by my time reading Nightfall and writing fanfics for these series, it's not even loosely connected to them, actually. It's about a girl who went on to interview a particular rich man, and then realizes she's hopelessly in love with him, but he turns out to have a bit of a dark secret and-"

"Did you give the rich guy the surname "Grey" by any chance?" – Sucy deadpanned.

"His full name is actually Allen Ravenborn." – The ginger continued. – "I won't be letting in on any…Further details, though. It's real raunchy from that point onward."

Well, this was awkward. After a few moments of the only sounds at the table being a bit of tea sipping and maybe the occasional coughing courtesy of Sucy, Akko quickly changed the subject…Back to where they started: "So, you two actually thought about adopting a kid, huh?"

"Well, it was only a recent suggestion by Lotte, actually. " – Amanda answered. – "I wholeheartedly agreed with her that we wouldn't need any of this surrogacy or potions mess – I mean, for crying out loud, that's a metric ton of health problems and overall stress for 9 months straight, which is something neither Lotte nor I would want – , and instead opted to just go on ahead and adopt a kid from one of the local orphanages. There is one orphan in particular she seems to be on the lookout for – an odd 10-year old girl with unnaturally long raven hair who actually seems to be blind from birth, judging by the blindfold she wears all the time. I think it was her pity getting the better of her when she decided that we would be filing for adoption of this particular kid. But hey, who am I to judge, anyway – besides, the kid's looking to be a rather nice and cheerful one despite her appearance and odd affliction, so-"

"Suce?" – Akko asked, looking over at her wife in the middle of Amanda's explanation.

"Come on now, Akko, it's rude to just bail out of a conversation. Just tough it out a little longer. " – Sucy whispered back.

"No, I meant to say that I'm not really feeling well right now…" – The brunette touched her hand to the side of her head to emphasize her point.

"Um, okay Amanda. Thanks for sharing the news, but you can save the rest of the details for another time." – Sucy remarked as she helped Akko stand up from the chair. – "Besides, Akko's not really feeling well today because of both the weather outside and her own low blood pressure, so-"

A loud thud interrupted the violette's speech. Akko practically fell out of her hands and onto the floor.

"Not the first time it happened…" – Sucy thought as Amanda and Lotte helped her lift the unconscious asian witch off the floor. – "…definitely won't be the last, at least within this trimester."

* * *

In about an hour, Akko soon woke up lying in her and Sucy's shared bed, with the violette sitting right by her side.

"Oh… Not again…" – Akko uttered, sitting upright. Sucy soon took notice of the fact that her wife seemed to have began coming to her senses, and remarked: "You know, your organism seems to be bent entirely on making you pass out at the worst of times."

"Yeah, tell me about it… For how long was I out?" – The brunette asked, still a little dazed.

"A couple…Days." – Naturally, Akko freaked out and gasped in surprise from that response, just as Sucy expected. Her immediate loud cackling as soon as the Japanese witch reacted accordingly, however, gave the joke away quickly, so she added: "I'm just fooling, guinea pig. You were out for an hour at most."

"Sucy!" – The asian witch whined, crossing her arms and pouting. – "You know that making a pregnant woman worry isn't exactly good to neither her health nor the health of her baby!"

"Hey, take it easy now, bunny. I just thought that I should ease the tension a little bit is all. I didn't mean to make you actually worry." – The alchemist remarked in a somewhat warmer than usual tone, hugging her wife.

"And what of Lotte and Amanda?" – Akko asked, her voice sounding a tad quiter by now.

"They apologized and went on to take the leyline back home after helping me carry you over to the bed when you passed out." – Sucy replied.

"Oh…" – Was all the brunette could muster for a response. The Filipino witch sighed and, still keeping her wife held in an embrace, asked: "Is something troubling you, honey?"

"Other than the fact that I just randomly passed out at the worst of times – nothing." – Akko deadpanned.

"No need to worry, darling. You'll just have to tough it out for about a few months more. From that point, the most you would have to worry about would be back aches, and maybe your belly getting in the way of things. " – Yeah, Sucy wasn't exactly good at being reassuring, but at least she tried.

"These "few months" are sure as hell going to feel like forever, though…" – The brunette groaned out. Sucy, although still smiling, gave out a quiet sigh and asked: "Say, are you feeling hungry right now, Akko?"

"Well, I skipped lunch because of my fainting issues, so I thought the answer should be pretty obvious?" – The asian witch barked out.

"Alright, alright, let me go cook something up for you. Mushroom soup as usual?" – Sucy asked as she got off the bed.

"Eh, not like I have any choice when you're the one cooking today." – Akko quietly replied as she attempted to get up from the bed, but was quickly pulled right back down by her wife, who remarked: "Nuh-uh, darling. I think you should just sit still for now. I'll bring you a bowl when it's done."

"Nah, if I have to sit still, then I'd just stay over at the kitchen, then. Lying here all alone isn't all that pleasant, you know." –The asian witch remarked as she got up and stubbornly followed her spouse. The violette just sighed, although the quiet smile on her face suggested that there wasn't any actual negativity behind that sigh.

_She just couldn't be mad at the lovable idiot of a wife she had._


	4. Raindrops and Potions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's a calm, rainy August day, so Akko isn't exactly in the mood to get out of bed. Sucy, however, has other plans.

"I know the rain outside is calming and soothing, but you wouldn't wanna sleep through the entire day, would you, Akko?"

Of all the days for a strong rain to happen, it had to be right on a Saturday. Right in the morning, too. So much for that morning stroll while the sun's not too high up, huh? On the other hand, both Sucy and Akko had generally agreed that they'd take a heavy flooding rain over the scorching sun any day of the week.

"I don't wanna get up, especially after yesterday. Not to mention that I'm still drowsier than usual, remember?" – Akko remarked, hoping for at least a few more minutes. Or preferably hours.

Sucy, however, was not having any of this dying swan act, and proceeded to pull the covers right off of her half-asleep wife.

"Hey!" – The brunette shouted as she practically jumped upright.

"Come on now, the first trimester can't leave you **this** helpless. You need to walk some more, otherwise…" – Sucy poked her wife's side. – "You're probably going to end up with more fat than just the usual baby fat."

"Alright, alright, I'm getting up. But it's not like I can even do any exercise today, no thanks to that stormy weather outside." – The asian witch remarked drowsily.

"Relax, I won't have you doing much on the physical side. I just needed a bit of help with some potions for the next week. Hopefully running around the lab is enough of an exercise to you. " – The alchemist replied while her wife ran off to the shower. Sighing, Sucy figured she might as well wait for when Akko's finished, as she tended to take really long showers sometimes.

Oddly enough, this time was an exception, as Akko came back rather quickly and went to get her casual clothes on. Same shirt with the honestly rather corny text, same short shorts – hey, it wasn't that cold in the house anyway – same childish pink slippers. Sucy just watched her wife get dressed back up, although before Akko pulled her shirt on completely, the violette couldn't help but walk over to her wife and give her a slight belly rub. Sure, the witch was just three months in, but she still had a rather noticeable, if small baby bump.

"Really now, Suce?" – The Japanese girl asked, blushing.

"You know I can't help it. Just be glad I didn't get even more intrusive, he-he-heh." – Sucy remarked, finishing off with her trademark shark-toothed grin. Although this time, it seemed just…A tad less mischievous than usual?

Akko was pretty sure it was just a trick of the light, though, and just replied: "So anyway, what is it you needed help with today anyway?"

"Just a batch of pretty basic potions. The most you'll really need to do is either prepare some ingredients accordingly, or just pass me some of the readily-prepared ones whenever needed." – The violette replied as her wife followed her to the ever-so-familiar lab.

Even now, the lab was not much to speak about – several shelves neatly lined with various alchemical ingredients and various vials of premade potions, a wooden table with tons of alchemical implements standing near the window, and a brewing cauldron situated right in the middle of the room with an elemental-based flame under it. Not that it mattered to Sucy, as she felt that a good alchemy lab just has to have all the practical things in place, and the looks are not really necessary.

With a few careful preparations, like putting on some basic protective gear like gloves and gas masks, the two witches went to work.

* * *

"So what is it you're brewing anyway? Even the gas mask doesn't seem to filter the smell of it completely." – Akko asked as she tossed in another ingredient per her wife's request.

"It only filters out the toxic fumes, so I guess it should be obvious that I'm not brewing any poisons today." – Sucy deadpanned as she continued stirring the contents of the cauldron. – "All I can say is that the potion's from my private orders list."

"Guess I won't pry at the matter, then." – The brunette remarked, looking a bit off to the side. After a few moments of the lab being silent save for the sounds of the bubbling cauldron, however, she asked: "So, why exactly did you need my help? I mean, I'm sure you could have just tossed the ingredients in yourself, right?"

"Sure, but it would take me a couple seconds longer than needed. And besides, running back and forth from the shelves to the table and then over to the cauldron is a little tiresome. Even more so – doing it on repeat several times in a row. Not to mention that in potion-making, any extra hands are well-appreciated. So there's that." – Sucy then gestured her wife to exit the lab, on the way remarking that the potion just needs to be let sit for a little while, and, as the two exited the laboratory and shut the door behind themselves, took her gas mask off and remarked: "Besides, working with you is always a pleasure, even if you are still a bit of a klutz."

Akko did the same, tossing her mask off to the side, and replied: "Yeah, I guess it's a lot better than just lying in the bed and doing nothing all day. Although I am feeling a little hungry right now. Maybe dragging me to the lab before breakfast wasn't the best idea?"

"Actually, it was. Think about it: If I were to drag you in right after breakfast, it would be pretty much one small whiff of any odd smell and EUUUGH!..." – Sucy paused for a moment, barely avoiding giggling at her own rather accurate imitation of the sounds that Akko would often make when she was sick, then continued: "So it's only natural that I decided to fool-proof this activity a bit, so that your morning sickness wouldn't get in the way of things. "

Akko couldn't help but groan at this one: "Well, now that I'm away from any possible smells that might set my morning sickness off, can we **please** have some breakfast? Especially considering that I'm kind of supposed to be eating for two here."

"Alright, alright, calm down, just let me go cook something up." – Sucy remarked as she walked over to the kitchen, with her spouse following just behind her. Sighing after she looked all over the place for what ingredients they've had available, she asked: "So, cheesy mushroom omelette as usual?"

"Yeah, that would be nice."

* * *

The two girls honestly didn't talk all that much while Sucy was busy cooking – it was kind of hard to start a proper conversation when right now, Akko's mind was mostly all on about getting some food already.

"At least she's not craving anything weird, so I guess that's a plus." – The violette thought to herself as Akko kept sitting at the dining table with a look that just screamed "hungry as hell".

And sure enough, when the meal was finally served, Akko chowed down on her portion like no tomorrow, of course being her usual messy eater self. Sucy couldn't help but chuckle at the sight and remark: "Easy there, bunny. I don't really want you to-"

"Shoshe, shessh, I kshnow." – Akko remarked with her mouth full. As she swallowed her meal, she corrected: "Choke, yes, I know."

Sucy just rolled her eyes and smiled. Akko sure still had zero manners and still refused to act her age, huh. In fact, the violette couldn't help but begin laughing out loud after a few moments, even if a certain part of Sucy told her that laughing in front of Akko like that is basically equal to stepping into a mandrake field – sure, her mood swings have died down recently, but the risk was still there.

"What are you laughing at?" – Akko asked, not exactly angry at her fiancée but still a little confused. The alchemist calmed down and asked back: "You mean right now, or all the time?" – Clearing her throat, she remarked: "Right now, I can't help but laugh at how you still refuse to act your age, despite, you know, being a mother-to-be and all."

"I guess there are things that never change, so too bad!" – The brunette remarked in faux grief, even blowing a raspberry at Sucy, making her snicker again.

"Hey, it's alright, take it easy. You're a walking punchline, and that's on the list of things I like about you. I can never get bored with you around." – The violette remarked, hugging her spouse. Akko hugged her back and quietly responded: "I'm glad you feel that way. Truth be told, I can say the same last thing for you. After all…" – She briefly pulled her half-do ponytail up for a moment, which still, amusingly enough, had a few green strands, likely left over from some of Sucy's past experiments. – "You've made my life a lot more exciting as well. Even if it was an unintended side effect of your various pranks and experiments. "

The alchemist chuckled at this notion courtesy of her wife. Looking out the window, she remarked: "Well, we've got the potions ready for tomorrow's sellout, and it doesn't look like there's much else for us to do until the rain's over. Want to go back over to our bedroom and lie down for a while?"

"I thought you said that I needed to move a little bit more today?" – Akko asked, a little confused.

"Alright, if you don't want to cuddle, then-" – Sucy didn't finish her sentence as she pretended to walk away, dragging out the "then" as long as she could. This trick always worked, and of course Akko fell for it now as well as she immediately shouted out: "Hey, hey, hey! I didn't say that I'm declining the offer!"

Cue the shark-toothed grin.

Yup, some things really never change.

* * *

Quietly lying in their shared bed, the two girls didn't really say much to one another aside from the occasional small talk. Sometimes, Sucy would slightly stroke Akko's small but still noticeable baby bump. The brunette couldn't really think of any other gesture in return other than quietly running her hand through the violette's silky smooth hair.

When Akko decided to pull Sucy's eye-obscuring bangs a little off to the side, the alchemist didn't really mind – she only really did it whenever they were all alone with one another and Akko decided to get a little more affectionate than usual, but not outright amorous, so she didn't really feel that bad from this particular gesture of affection.

As Akko found out way back in their second academy year, when the two were already together for quite a while, the alchemist did have something to hide under her hair – rather mundane heterochromia, as her hidden left eye turned out to be blue instead of red. It was another one of those things that Sucy feared stood out about her too much and made her even more of a weirdo, this being the main reason why she always has those "peek-a-bangs", as everyone would call them. And naturally, Akko accepted it, in fact, even complimenting it and saying that it actually makes Sucy at least 20% more beautiful, if not even more.

Sucy still insisted on keeping her odd eye hidden, though, but she still didn't mind Akko moving her bangs away whenever they were getting all affectionate when all alone with just each other for company.

"It's real nice to see both your eyes every now and then, you know." – Akko remarked as she looked her fiancée in the eyes.

"Don't get used to it. It wouldn't be so special if it happened all the time." – The violette answered, smirking. After a few moments of thinking, she asked: "Say, what do you think are the odds of our kid actually inheriting heterochromia?"

"I'm not a genetic scientist, how should I know?" – The Japanese witch replied, giggling. As she calmed down, she added: "Although, heterochromia is kind of rare, so I doubt that would happen. For that matter, I don't think she would inherit that pretty hair color of yours either. Which is a real shame, to be honest."

"You're already so certain that the child is going to be a girl?"

"Another one of those things that I can't say for certain, really…" – Akko stammered, blushing. – "But I wouldn't complain if the child were a boy. After all, the world really lacks proper wizards."

"Boy or girl, I just hope the kid's not going to be a complete and utter klutz like their mom."

"Or a mischievous prankster not unlike their "other mom", then."

The two girls couldn't help but laugh out loud at this one. Friendly jabs like these were pretty much integral to their relationship.

"We can't really say much on it. After all, we've both been getting low-to-mid grades in Fortune Telling, so we can't say for absolute certain just what kind of person our kid would turn out or grow up to be. Either way, I think there's one thing we know for certain." – Sucy remarked as she gave her wife one last belly rub.

" _You and I will make for quite the wonderful, if a little weird parents."_


	5. Distance and Secrets

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When going out shopping for potion ingredients, Sucy and Akko meet up with a former colleague of theirs, who seems to be stuck in an ever-so-typical anniversary struggle.

Normally, when Sucy needed any alchemical ingredients, she only travelled over to Blytonbury alone, bought the necessary things and left quickly. This particular time, however, Akko insisted on tagging along, as she didn't want to stay all alone back at home, even if it was for a couple hours at most.

But it wasn't like Sucy really minded – it was a nice change of pace, and Akko was glad to visit Blytonbury after having had never been there since one of her last performances during the time when she was still a magical performer.

"Wow, this place sure is as nice as it used to be, ain't it?" – Akko remarked as she and Sucy walked through the streets from the Glastonbury-Blytonbury town border. The violette hardly understood the appeal of the place – it was crowded, the traffic, even if it was occasional, still made a ton of noise, and the place was just too unremarkable for her taste. But, eh, if Akko liked it here, then the alchemist figured she might as well not sour her wife's mood, and quietly nodded.

"So anyway, where are we headed off to first?" – The brunette asked in her usual chipper tone.

"Well, we'll just head off to the Magic Item Shop, buy all the necessary things, and be back on our way to the leyline." – Sucy replied, and just as she noticed that Akko was about to reach over for their broom, she added: "Oh, and this town's still a no-flight zone. Usage of brooms here is formally restricted for quite a few reasons, so it means we'll have to get over to the shop by foot."

This prompted a pained groan from Akko: "Ugh, my legs are **so** going to hurt after this!"

"Hey, cheer up, bunny." – The violette reassured her wife, giving her a light pat on the shoulder – "If anything, when we get home, I'll make it up to you with a foot massage. Sit back, relax, let me do all the work – that kind of thing."

"Now wouldn't that be information too personal to share in public?" – A familiar voice said from behind Akko and Sucy. As the couple turned around, they've noticed that Diana was standing right behind them.

"Oh, hey Diana! Didn't expect to see you out here!" – Akko replied, grinning sheepishly, while Sucy just sighed. Even if they did stop bickering over the years, she still was rather unhappy with Diana's presence. Just not as outright hostile to her as she was before.

"I visit this town on just about every weekend, so I suppose it was within expectations that I would be present here on a Sunday." – Yup, the blonde still had her usual eloquent manner of talking. Seems like some things just never change. – "More specifically, I was actually… Just about to head over to the shopping district."

"Huh. So that means we do have to tag along after all." – Sucy said without much enthusiasm, in an almost groaning tone.

* * *

"So anyway, you didn't seem to notice one particular detail when you bumped into us, though." – Akko remarked, resting her hand on her belly to emphasize her point.

Diana quietly chuckled and remarked: "I did. I just presumed it would be rude to call any attention to your current state. And I have to admit, you've made a rather bold decision. "

"Eh, it wasn't that bad. The first three months were the worst, but now the most I have to worry about is the occasional back aches. I just thought that, since Sucy and I were together for so long, we just needed to take our relationships to the logical next step." – The brunette replied, smiling.

"Nah, it was her maternal instincts going out of control that made her decide on this." – Sucy remarked, giving out her usual shroom-eating grin as she finished her sentence, making Akko pout as usual. As for Diana, she just sighed and remarked under her breath: "These two, I swear…"

"So anyway, how are things going between you and Constanze lately?"

Long story short, after Diana had moved on from her past crush on Akko, the latter witch tried to play matchmaker and attempted to pair the blonde up with Constanze. While the two did go on a few pretend dates just so that Akko would leave them alone, eventually, the usual cliché of a "romantic fake-real turn" reared it's head and next thing Akko knew, she spotted the two witches making out in the middle of Constanze's workshop.

Out of all of Akko's close friends, however, Constanze and Diana were probably married for the shortest period of time – just a couple years by the current time. Partly because they've had other matters to attend to, with Constanze getting a job at Meridies Corps right out the gates of Luna Nova while Diana chose to study further to be a Magical Linguistics Professor, and thus the blonde was only able to propose to Constanze after finishing a further study course. Luckily, even if their jobs left them separated quite often, the relationship between Diana and Constanze was going smoothly over the years. Or, at the very least, it seemed to be doing so – nobody could say it with them for certain, considering they weren't the type of people for any public displays of affection, unlike at least three other couples both witches knew all too well.

"Well, this is the exact reason that I had travelled over to Blytonbury, actually. Today's our wedding anniversary, and I figured I might as well get her a gift." – Diana replied, blushing a little bit. – "The problem is, I cannot really decide on what to get for her."

"Just give her something that you think would be just the right kind of gift for someone like her!" – Akko cheerfully remarked, which led Sucy to retort in a deadpan tone: "You're not thinking of a set of techmaturgical instruments now, are you?"

"Nooooo?" – The brunette responded, clearly not being a very good liar. Sucy just snickered at the situation, while Diana once again sighed and rolled her eyes back. Yep, some things just plain never change.

While the trio of witches was busy making their way over to the shopping district, Akko just barely noticed someone trying to sneak past them, just a few steps away. Considering Akko's low attention span that persisted even in her twenties, she quickly turned her attention from the conversation they were having over to the person that attempted to sneak past her just now.

Sure enough, the person turned out to have been Constanze – the navy blue hair, short stature and overly serious expression couldn't let even Akko mistake the girl for anyone else. And when Constanze realized that she has been spotted, she began furiously signing to the asian witch to not say anything and to just walk over to her, then hid behind a corner.

While Akko was initially puzzled, she still wanted to get to the bottom of this.

"You girls go on, I need to check something around here. I'll catch up to you two quickly!" – Akko remarked as she ran walked off in the direction where Constanze was currently trying to hide from Diana's view.

"Don't overexert yourself, bunny." – Sucy remarked, while Diana, seeming a little puzzled, just shrugged it off and kept going.

* * *

As Akko approached Constanze, she asked: "What's wrong? Why are you hiding from Diana like this?"

Constanze, as per her usual matter, didn't say anything, and first pointed at the direction where Sucy and Diana were currently going, then pointed at an odd case she was holding. A jewelry case that seemed to be just the right size to accommodate a necklace, no less.

"Oh, so that's your anniversary gift for her?" – The only reply Akko got was a quiet nod. – "Why didn't you just go up to her and gift it, then?"

The german girl signed that she didn't want to talk about it, looking rather apprehensive about the whole thing, then pointed over in the direction of the city's train station.

"So this is where you want to meet up with Diana and gift it to her?" – Once again, the only response from the German witch to the brunette was just another nod. – "Okay, okay, I won't tell anything, I promise."

As Constanze flashed the Japanese witch a thumbs up gesture, the two soon parted ways – Akko coming after Diana and Sucy to catch up to them, while Constanze walked over to the train station.

* * *

Meanwhile, Diana and Sucy were on their way over to the shopping district, their convesation having had come to a screeching halt now that Akko ran off.

"So…How were you and Akko doing lately?" – Diana asked, trying to somewhat break the resulting tension. – "You know, ever since she resigned from her position as the Lightning Lily."

Ugh. Sucy hated hearing Akko's old stage name. It always served as a reminder of those forlorn days when she had to wait for Akko to return from another one of her tours for weeks on end, and how utterly exhausted Akko looked when she did return, barely having a week to get some rest from her work before going off on another tour.

"I'd say that we're doing a lot better since then. She seems to be perfectly content with a more grounded life and hardly even misses her time as a performer. And, well, if she's happy, then I am happy, I guess." – Sucy off-handedly replied as she and Diana briefly stopped.

"That point of view…Does make a certain degree of sense, I guess. " – As Diana said that, she went silent for a few more moments. Later on, however, as much as the blonde wanted to avoid prying at the matter, she couldn't help but ask: "Was it difficult?"

"What?"

"You know…Waiting for her to return back home for such prolonged periods of time." – Diana forlornly sighed and looked off somewhere into the distance, then, getting no answer from the violette, she added: "At least Constanze and I don't end up on particularly long distances for so many days. And yet I still feel the odd distance, just not of the physical kind. "

"Career getting in the way of relationships, huh?" – Sucy asked, and before Diana could answer, she added: "I'd say you and Constanze should try to spend more of your free time with each other whenever possible. Not to the point of getting sick of one another, but just the right amount. Go out on dates, broom flights, all the good stuff that you should have been doing in your free time instead of extra studying or techmaturgical tinkering back in the academy. One should always make the most of a relationship, and if you two didn't do that before, well, try to do the same thing now. I mean, I'm no couple counselor, but at least that seems like common sense. "

"I might consider your advice and try to make the most of any free time Constanze and I may have together later, Sucy. Thank you." – The blonde replied, and it seems that the two witches' conversation ended just in time, as Akko had just caught up to them.

"Sorry to have kept you waiting!" –The brunette said while trying to recover her breath. After a few moments, she added: "So, I suppose we can keep going now?"

* * *

Meanwhile, at the Blytonbury train station, Constanze was sitting at one of the benches and waiting for when Diana would come over to the place. The German witch's Standroid – a more portable and less noticeable version of the Stanbot with flight capabilities – tilted it's head at her as it looked over the jewelry case it's master was holding.

Constanze just quietly gestured the techmaturgical robot to land onto the bench for a while, and remarked: "This is going to take a while."

* * *

"Maybe get her one of those photo lockets?"

Seems like Sucy's original objective of shopping for alchemical ingredients had to be put aside for now, much to the Filipino witch's chagrin. She just quietly stood near the counter at the gift shop, waiting while Akko was busy helping Diana choose a proper gift for Constanze.

"Hey, they're not an old couple, one of those cheesy lockets just won't do." – The violette deadpanned in retaliation to Akko's suggestion.

"Yes, it just doesn't seem right." – After a few moments of thinking, Diana added: "Not to mention she already has one she prefers not to wear in public."

"Okay, maybe then a split heart keychain?" – Akko remarked, looking over at the currently unengraved keychain, leading both Diana and Sucy to groan out in exasperation. –"Well, I'm trying!"

"Maybe this?" – Sucy jokingly held out a canvas art depicting two gravestones side to side, with the writing "We'll be together forever, right?" on the frame, leaving both Diana and Akko noticeably mortified.

"You have some **really** messed-up taste in gifts, Suce." – Akko replied in a still somewhat scared tone. The violette's only response was one of her typical wicked grins as she said: "I'll get one of these for you on our anniversary the next year, if you want to."

"Anything in particular you're looking for, Miss? I see that your friends' suggestions are not being very helpful." – One of the shop assistants, a skinny man with unkempt black hair, remarked as he approached the trio.

"That would be Mrs. Cavendish, sir." – Diana responded as she turned around to face the assistant. – "They were merely helping me pick a wedding anniversary gift for my spouse."

"Alright, just describe what kind of person your spouse is, and I'm sure that, if the solution doesn't come to you on your own, then I can at least help you out." – The assistant remarked, in a rather "bored-to-death" tone. Seems like the guy's had his fair shift of indecisive customers already.

"Welp, we tried. I suppose that means we can just ditch her now." – Soon Sucy noticed that Akko was slightly leaning against the wall, seeming a little dizzy. – "Oh. You okay, bunny?"

"Yeah, just…I basically ran a marathon to catch up to you two. " – Akko needed to say no further things as Sucy quietly led her outside the gift shop and let her sit down for a while on a nearby bench.

"What did you even run off for anyway? I'm sure it wasn't worth a near-fainting situation. " – The violette asked as she sat down next to her wife, who was taking quiet, controlled breaths to recover from her slight dizziness. When the Japanese witch did recover, she was rather quick to reply.

"Hey, cut it out! I can't control it, you know that all too well!" – Akko shouted out, pouting afterwards. This sight caused Sucy to giggle and remark: "Come on, take it easy. You know I'm just concerned about you. No, but seriously, what was it?"

"Well, it's a short one…" – Then the asian witch explained the whole situation with Constanze.

"Wow, I guess Diana really did misjudge Constanze after all." – The violette replied in a somewhat bored tone. – "Oh, and promise me one thing – that you'll never do this whole surprise gift thing yourself. We just tell each other what we want, and then go ahead and get that for one another. Deal?"

"Deal." – After Akko said that, she gave her spouse a soft hug, with Sucy returning the affection. After they've let go of one another, Sucy said: "Now, considering your state at the moment, I suggest you just sit here for a bit while I go buy all the necessary alchemical ingredients we came here for."

"Come on, I'm not that helpless, I'm already fine." – Akko whined, which prompted the Filipino witch to answer: "Alright, then you'll be carrying the bags back home."

"Hey!" – The brunette was not at all happy with the prospect of having to walk back to the leyline terminal with even more weight to carry around. Sucy's trademark mischievous shark-toothed grin, however, revealed that the violette was merely toying with Akko once again.

"I'm just kidding, Akko." – The violette gently stroked her wife's belly and added: "You know I wouldn't be cruel enough to put you or your child at risk. "

"Are you two done yet?" – And this was when Sucy wondered if her reputation as a moment-killer was one-upped by Diana's own moment-killing.

"Why yes. Yes, we are." – The alchemist deadpanned as she helped her wife get up from the bench. – "Now if you'll excuse us, we have some alchemical reagents to buy."

Akko didn't say anything, and just quietly nodded in confirmation with her spouse's words, which caused Diana to sigh and reply: "Alright, I suppose I'll just wait here, then, since I'm in no particular hurry right now. "

* * *

Some more shopping and walking back to the split path later, the trio soon had reached a point where their paths diverged – Diana had to head back to the train station, while Sucy and Akko needed to head over to the leyline terminal.

"Hopefully we'll meet up again later. And thanks for at least trying to help me choose a gift. Even if your advice proved rather fruitless, I'd give you a B for effort." – Diana remarked.

"Ah, well… You know I never am any good when it comes to any kind of advice." – The brunette replied, grinning sheepishly as she scratched the back of her head. – "So what is it you got for Constanze, anyway?"

"I figured that a piece of jewelry would do nicely, so I went with a silver bracelet with twin sapphires set into a golden setpiece." –To emphasize her point, Diana showed a smallish jewelry case that seemed to be just the right size to fit in a small bracelet.

"Subtle." – Sucy quietly deadpanned.

"Well, guess we should be going now. Say hi to Constanze for me!" – Akko cheerfully said as she waved goodbye to Diana while the blonde witch herself was leaving for the train station, not knowing that she was about to meet up with Constanze on the way there.

Not that Akko or Sucy wanted to stay around and see the two other witches exchange gifts and get all sickeningly sweetheart with each other – if anything, they've had their own "sweethearting" to do back home.

* * *

"Whew, talk about a hectic day." – Akko remarked as she and Sucy flew through the leyline, with the bags full of alchemical reagents currently dangling off the broom, seemingly not offsetting it's balance in the least.

"Well, you were the one who had to run a marathon today, not me." – The violette deadpanned, rolling her eyes back. Her little idiot meant well, sure, but it was still a dumb move for her to overexert herself like this, even despite how energetic she is. –"Next time, warn me when you're about to get involved in someone else's affairs."

" _Hai._ " – The asian witch responded dejectedly. – "Speaking of which, what will you be getting me next anniversary? You weren't serious about that canvas art, were you?" – This question prompted the puce-haired witch to just roll her eyes in exasperation and add: "Of course I wasn't. I know you're not the type of person for such morbid gifts. You still owe me that bottomless pouch, though."

"Come on, you know they're way out of my gift price range…" – Akko retorted, pouting once again.

Sucy just couldn't help but giggle at the sight of her wife's silly pout, remarking: "Got you a second time today. Anyway, we're nearing the exit, so hold on tight and don't drop the bags. If at least one falls off, no foot massage for you when we get home! "

Akko couldn't help but snicker as Sucy said that, and just kept her hands wrapped around the violette.

_She knew that beneath all that sarcasm and occasional mischievousness and messing with her, Sucy still loved her more than anything in the entire world._


	6. Redecoration and Reflection

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A quiet October day, an attempt at room redecoration, and a bit of self-reflection on Sucy's part.

"Hmm. Well, it's not like this room ever gets used for it's intended purpose anyway."

Considering that the kid would need a room of their own, Sucy was currently standing in the middle of the rarely-used guest room of her and Akko's shared house, looking around to see what warranted change. The room was not too spacious, sure, but at the very least, the single bed was at least half decent, and there was actually a rather large empty space in the corner of the room, which seemed to have just enough space to fit a toddler bed. The room didn't need all that much repainting either, so Sucy figured that the only things she'd have to take care of would be the bed placement. Hopefully Akko wouldn't insist on painting the room pink, though…

And speak of the mother-to-be…

"Oh, hey, sugar. What are you doing here?" – The brunette asked, leaning in from the side of the doorframe.

"Just thinking of how to redesign the guest room into a proper bedroom for our child, of course." – After looking around some more, Sucy turned to face Akko and spoke up: "I'm thinking we'd probably stick with minimal changes. Just stick the toddler bed into that corner of the room, get a couple toy shelves here and there, and that should be it."

"Wait, really? Shouldn't we repaint the room first?" – As Akko said that, she conjured a paintbrush and a small bucket of pink paint. The sight of the latter made Sucy gag.

"I'm pretty sure that aversion to the color pink is probably an inheritable thing." – The violette remarked, averting her gaze – "You wouldn't want our kid to sleep in a room that's painted in a color that she would constantly gag from, would you?"

"Um, but your hair is-"

"It's a noble mauve color, not pink." – Sucy remarked, not really angry at Akko since the girl brought that one up at least several times, so she was used to it. – "There's a visible difference between retch-inducing pink, and a subtle, noble mauve."

"So, the point is…"

"Toss that pink paint out into the trash where it belongs." – For all of the violette's attempts at being nice, they fell flat on a bright pink surface at this very moment. Akko shrugged and casually dispelled both the paint bucket and the brush. – "In any case, we're off shopping today. You might want to put a jacket on, by the way. This October is way too windy for it's own good, I swear…"

Overall, the shopping went by relatively normally. The only issues that arised were the issues of how exactly they would transport an entire toddler bed all the way back home. Luckily, it was solved by a single well-done Reducto spell. Both Akko and Sucy couldn't help but snicker as they remembered the look on the seller's face црут they not only declined the delivery, and when Sucy just casually minimized the entire bed to the size of a match box and stuffed it into her pocket. The spell was stable enough not to wear off mid-flight as the witches made their way back home, too.

Now, back home, Sucy and Akko had gone over to re-decorating the room. Sucy was still very much against painting the walls pink, and it wasn't until a few minutes later that the girls settled on painting the walls a light purple – in Akko's opinion, it was surely a step-up from the bland beige that the room was before.

Unfortunately, the painting process was a little taxing on Akko – while it was all done by virtue of spells from both her and Sucy, the smell of paint was still making the pregnant brunette feel light-headed, so it wasn't long before the asian witch bailed out not from just the room, but out of the house, stepping out to take a breather.

"I think we should call it a day." – Sucy remarked as she stepped out of the house just a few minutes later. – "If anything, paint fumes are always bad news for airheads like you. "

As much as Akko wanted to retort to that remark, she had to admit that her wife was right – the fumes were outright making the brunette choke on the air she inhaled, and it wasn't until after she took a few long, deep breaths outside that she managed to recover.

"How much did you paint anyway?" – The brunette asked, her breath finally having had returned back to normal rhythm.

"Barely painted half the room, to be honest." – Sucy remarked, scratching the back of her head in embarrassment over an unfinished job and over making Akko have to run out of the house because of the paint fumes. – "And sadly enough, I can't speed up the drying process with a spell – doing so will make the paint crack like no tomorrow, and that'll result in half a day's work wasted. I suggest we just wait it out at our garden for a while."

"That sounds good to me."

The terrace wasn't actually there at first when Sucy and Akko got this house way back when they moved into it, just shortly after they've graduated from Luna Nova. It was only after the two witches finished paying out the loan for it together that they've actually began to make some new adjustments to both the house interior and exterior. And of course, the terrace was one such adjustment.

Right now, the girls were sitting on a terrace bench, huddled next to one another for warmth with Sucy having had draped her jacket over Akko for good measure, and a smallish fire pit directly across of them fueled by a fire elemental – that one was owed to Lotte, who had helped them set it up just on the day they were finishing the terrace, actually – helping them a bit in that regard.

Akko kept both her hands wrapped around Sucy's shoulders, while the violette was quietly, slowly stroking her wife's pregnant belly. Both girls were modestly smiling, their eyes closed as they enjoyed their personal little heaven – sitting next to one another, not a care in the world, and just enjoying each other's embrace in a pleasant silence, with nothing but the sounds of the wind and each other's quiet, calm breaths to accompany them.

Sucy chuckled at the fact that the one thing that would formerly be her ironic hell – being stuck in close contact with a person for prolonged time – was now quite the opposite to her. Oh, how time changes people.

As Akko yawned loudly without covering her mouth, the violette made a correction to that notion – apparently, some things just plain never change.

Then again, it was hard not to notice even for Akko how both she and Sucy changed over the years they've spent together as a married couple. What started out as merely a late teens passion blossomed into a beautiful, if a little odd relationship, and even the one other candidate for Akko's heart had been accepting enough to let the subject of her passion be with the one she truly loved. And in just a third of a year, Sucy and Akko were going to be a full family.

Sucy never thought of herself to be the type of person to ever want to start a family. She used to hate little kids like no tomorrow during her late teens, and before the violette realized that she is all over girls and has zero feelings for boys (Even if one of her inner voices would think otherwise before it got inevitably expunged), she thought she'd just never find that one right mate, that she'd be nothing more than an ineffectual loner for the remainder of her life. And yet never did she expect that the one type of person who she used to hate the most – the loud, overly cheerful type – would end up being the same type of person that her lifemate had ended up being. But one thing was for certain – that girl has certainly managed to bring Sucy out of her metaphorical shell, and it wasn't as bad as she thought it would be.

As for Akko, Sucy always presumed that she'll always be just that – an immature air-headed brunette pursuing a near-impossible dream. And yet over the years, Akko has certainly took a lot more responsibility in her actions, thought over the consequences at least a tad more often than she normally did, and, despite having had gotten her dream in the end, realized that, if anything, she's truly happy with her friends and loved ones, and wouldn't trade that happiness even for all the fame in the world. Nobody coerced her into that choice, oddly enough – she somehow came to that realization all on her own, which has definitely shown how much Akko has grown since her time as a near-hopeless magical performer wannabe.

"Aren't you cold?" – Akko's rather untimely question rang through.

"I'm wondering how much we've changed over the years." – Sucy replied quietly, still staying on her own trail of thought. – "How much we went through together. How different we are from what we were when we just started out together. How much everything around us has changed."

"Look, I just asked if you were cold, I didn't ask you to begin one of your emotional monologues!" – The brunette remarked in her chipper but slightly annoyed tone. – "Honestly, I don't know exactly what's on your mind – because I'm not planning any visits to Sucyland anytime soon, that's for sure – but you know what I think? I'm thinking we have a blindingly bright future ahead of ourselves! So can it with the worrying, Suce."

Sucy couldn't help but chuckle at Akko's rather adorkable notion, nodding in agreement.

Funny, just over ten years ago she'd never agree to such an overly optimistic statement.


	7. Overwork and Kicking

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While sometimes life tries to make sure that everything that can go wrong will go wrong, there are some days when everything seems to be going much better than expected.

November. The one month that both Akko and Sucy hated more than July, for a whole slew of reasons.

While for Sucy the reasons were rather small – mushroom gathering season coming to an end, constant downfall, dirty roads – for Akko, it was the sheer autumn melancholy that began going out of control. If October at least had a major holiday going for it, and most of the time weather wasn't all that bad, then November was a very harsh transition between autumn and winter. The fact that this year's October was rather rainy didn't help matters, as the mix of heavy rain and quickly-melting snow that followed suit throughout November was anything but charming, especially due to most roads throughout the small town that AKko and Sucy lived at becoming a complete and utter mess.

And as luck would have it, of all days for the weather to be at it's worst, with the heavy wind persisting since the morning and a heavy rain predicted in the weather forecast for the afternoon, it had to be a Friday. The good news ended at just one passage – after it was over, Sucy would have at least two days away from work, as she was working by her own schedule and had at least two days off a week. However, with the weather for the weekend going to be much of the same, with heavy winds and occasional snow, Sucy just knew that neither she nor her wife would spend much time outside.

"Ugh, I just hope that today I'll get a more reasonable number of customers, and that they'll buy something **other** than cheap cold medicine. If you're gonna worry about your or your relatives' health, then don't be a cheapskate, buy some proper medicine! It's cheap, but you'll **have** to buy more, because not all my potions are some sort of **miracles**!" – Sucy rambled to the air as Akko handed the violette her jacket.

"Sucy, don't you feel like you're overworking yourself? I don't think that I'd want to be a single mother just because of a bad case of _karoshi (_ Japanese, literally "death from overwork") _,_ you know?" – The brunette asked, sounding rather concerned.

Taking some time to calm her breath, Sucy turned back around to face Akko and remarked: "I should be fine, Akko. Not the first time I've had to spend weeks working overtime. And besides, for all the bad days at work, I don't really hate this particular business. " – Quietly smiling, the violette added: "It's just that it's been a less-than-stellar week lately and I have to work extra for the sake of our family. "

As the violette shut the door behind her and left, Akko could only sigh dejectedly as she went into the living room and plopped down onto the couch.

"Seems like your other mother's not going to be spending a lot of time with you after you're born, Aiko." – The Japanese witch remarked to her yet-unborn child. After a bit of spell-based diagnostics, Akko was able to confirm that her child, indeed, was going to be a girl, so recently, she had been thinking over some names. She was currently stuck on "Aiko", which she had to admit wasn't too original, considering it was just one letter away from being like her nickname, but she figured it just sounds nice, and the meaning behind it – "beautiful child" – was also a nice touch.

Not that she had any time to discuss that with Sucy lately, as the violette's been working overtime a lot, and even on weekends, she was stuck in her alchemy lab, only coming out to eat, drink, sleep, or take care of any other natural needs. She appreciated Sucy's hard work, but honestly, that kind of overwork seemed… Self-destructive.

"That's it, this weekend, no matter the weather, I'm so gonna drag her out onto a more proper date for once! L-like a broom flight! Or a quick trip to some café, heck if I know! That woman **needs** to have some rest from her work!" – Akko shouted out as she quickly stood up from her couch. Of course, standing up too fast did have it's consequences, as soon enough, clutching her forehead, the girl sat back down.

"Ugh, how could I forget… Get up too quickly – and you'll fall back down even quicker." – The brunette remarked, then, after a few moments, her tone shifting back to a determined one, she added: "But my plan for tomorrow still stays the same!"

* * *

"Well, that was unsurprising."

As Sucy had predicted, quite a lot of customers ended up coming over to her shop one after another, some of them being the same people that bought Sucy's medicine previously. The smarter ones came in to buy that medicine in bulk, others came in to complain about the medicine's ineffectiveness despite there clearly being stated that one has to pay up for a whole bulk of cold medicine potions, and that they don't so much heal the illness in an instant as merely boost up one's immune system, and that they have to be taken constantly until the illness is no more.

At the very least, unlike the day before, there were a few customers here and there who agreed to the a lot more costly, but also significantly more effective remedy. Which meant that Sucy wouldn't have to work overtime today.

" _You know, you haven't been paying much attention to Akko recently. And considering her current state, she certainly needs some affection from you like no tomorrow."_ – Honestly, Sucy was almost certain that the "Love Sucy" wasn't going to leave her till the day she dies, and was maybe going to stick around even after that.

"If only that nimwit understood that I'm merely doing this for our own family's good." – Sucy thought aloud as she looked at the clock, seeing that it was just one hour away from the usual closing hours and leaning back on her chair lazily. – "And for the sake of ensuring a more proper winter holiday. Last year, Diana had to pay for everything so that I didn't have to work my butt off instead of having a proper holiday vacation, and I'm still embarrassed to ask Cavendish for any financial help ever since.

" _In any case, you'll still have to make it up to Akko for today over the weekend. Even if the weather is going to be complete hell, at least try not to make her feel bad over you refusing to spend time with her even during your off days." –_ And with that, the Love Sucy had nothing else to say, at least for the time being.

She decided that, at least for starters, she might as well call Akko up to tell her she'll be coming home much earlier than usual.

The brunette seemed to have picked the phone up rather quickly, as her overly chipper " _Moshi-moshi!"_ was almost immediately heard on the other end.

"Wanted to tell you that I'll be coming home much earlier today. No overtime for today – things went rather smoothly, and the revenue is just about perfect. How're you doing, by the way?" – Sucy asked over the phone, not noticing that one last customer had walked into the shop.

"I was just about to tell you that! So, there I was, having some rest after finishing my housework for the evening, then I randomly lightly moved my hand over my belly, and… My baby just kicked! I cannot wait until you get home to feel it up yourself!" – Akko excitedly explained over the phone.

"Of course I will, honey. Oh, and before I hang up, I just wanted to ask if-"

"Excuse me, Miss, I couldn't really come any earlier. I see that you're probably busy, and it's nearing closing hours already, but still…" - The last customer, a green-haired teenage girl, spoke up, interrupting Sucy. Her uniform, however, quickly gave away that she was one of the first-year students of Luna Nova.

"Eh, it's alright, I was about to hang up anyway." – Sucy remarked, covering the phone with her hand, then, after quickly telling Akko that she'll just need to get done with one last customers and hanging up, asked "So what is it you needed? You look a bit too healthy for someone who came by for cold medicine, unlike at least 90% of my customers today who did. " – Sucy remarked, rather confused.

"Not really… I kind of… Well… There is a… Certain person that I took a liking to and-"

"I don't sell love potions, so scram." – The violette deadpanned, getting up as she figured she might as well close her shop early today.

"No-no-no, please, it's not that! I'm getting to it! So, that person kind of barely gets to have any restful sleep, as she kind of went off-schedule because of her overnight studying, and I wondered if you have any revitalizing potions? Preferably a whole batch, if I even have enough money to cover the costs for that." – As if to emphasize her point, the witch took out a rather sizable wad of bills.

"Now, that's a bunch too many." – She remarked, shoving the money away, briefly wondering where the green-haired student could have acquired that, considering their scholarship payouts were far less generous back in her studying years, and that money conjuration was heavily outlawed. – "A weekly amount of sleep treatment should do her just fine, and what you have here covers the costs for three months, if not more. But let me just tell you, potions alone won't be enough. If you really… Took that much of a liking to that person-"

"Wait, how did you know that-"

"Darling, I studied in that particular academy. And I know that quite a lot of students from Luna Nova often end up "coming out of the closet" during their studying years." – As Sucy said that, she went over to get the necessary batch of sleeping potions. – "So what I meant to say is, it's not just potions that you'll need to use. Talk it out with her, tell her she needs to take some breaks from her work, all that. The youngest recorded case of _karoshi_ – death from overwork – isn't what Luna Nova needs." – As she finished saying that, she handed the package containing seven medium-sized vials, "Sleep Treatment" written on the package label.

"One vial each day before sleeping, no breaks in between treatment days. If her sleep problems persist, just come back here for another batch. If she keeps overworking herself to insomnia, try to ask someone whom she is more likely to listen to that they convince her to dial her overworking back a bit. " – The violette remarked, later giving out the cost for the batch and counting off the necessary amount of money.

"Thanks. And… Hope you and your wife have a nice weekend. " – The green-haired teen remarked as she scurried out of the shop with the box of potions she had.

Well, Sucy figured she might as well head on back home.

* * *

"There! There, she kicked!"

Not too long after Sucy had gotten back home, it wasn't long before she complied with Akko's request and went on to check her out. As it turned out, the brunette didn't just get a random sensation, as her baby really was reacting whenever Sucy even as much as lightly stroked the asian witch's pregnant belly.

"As hyperactive as her mom, huh." – Sucy remarked, smiling warmly as she stroked her wife's baby bump a couple more times, getting the expected reaction from the little life within the girl.

After the violette ceased with the touching, Akko pulled her undershirt back over her belly and asked: "So, you still didn't tell me why you were overworking yourself so madly lately."

"Eh, no big deal. Just saving up money for the December holidays, nothing too important." – The alchemist responded in her ever-so-typical "gadfly" kind of tone, grinning as she finished her sentence.

"Aw, you didn't have to overwork yourself that much!" – Akko replied in her usual cheery tone, not seeming to pay any attention to the way Sucy said it. – "But still, thank you. At least that means we won't have to ask someone else to fund our vacation for us." – After saying that, the brunette hugged her spouse as tightly as she could, although she quickly let go of Sucy once the girl gave out her typical pained grunting.

"Well, guess I'd better go reheat that mushroom soup. Even without working overtime, you're probably hungrier than a wolf who didn't have any good hunts for two weeks already!" – Akko remarked as she ran off to the kitchen.

"If that were the case, I'd already drop dead from starvation." – Sucy morbidly joked as she followed her wife over to the kitchen. Not that Akko paid much attention to that particular joke anyway.

_**After all, her thoughts were currently on to the weekend she was looking forward to spending with her wife.** _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, that was a trainwreck. I feel like I must have screwed up the ending here, and I sincerely hope that the remaining chapters are going to be done a bit better. I have to admit, this one was more of a filler chapter. Maybe to show some of the possible family problems the duo might have or something, I don't really know what I was expecting with this chapter.
> 
> Any-way!... We're gonna have some returning characters in the next chapter. And hopefully, I'll end up writing a better chapter than the previous attempt at throwing in some other characters.
> 
> So with all that said...
> 
> Darky Out!


	8. Holidays ang Gifts - Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Akko and Sucy go shopping for gifts and holiday necessities, when in a set of contrived coincidences, they bump into several all-too-familiar witches.

(Current in-story month: December)

"Okay, so I think we have everything done. Now to just go over our list to make sure we didn't miss anything."

Sucy and Akko weren't really the types to shop for the Christmas necessities at any large malls. Sucy hated crowded places, and Akko tended to get lost in such large buildings, and they both certainly agreed that sometimes, the prices skyrocketed instead of dropping down near the holidays. That being said, on that particular day, Akko had requested that they'd go over to the Blytonbury mall, as she still had some gifts to get for most of her close friends. A certain limited edition book for Lotte – apparently, the nerdy girl has gotten off of Nightfall just recently, and gotten into the Magical Catastrophe Agency series, written by an author that seemingly hailed from Jasminka's homeland. – a new set of super-precise tools for Constanze – for all her usage of magic during her tinkering, the German raven-haired girl had often needed some more mundane tools every now and then, especially considering that she had a habit of repurposing some tools magically as well, and she needed some new "toys to play with", so to speak – and a few other things that would probably end up as a particularly huge list.

"We still have to get that one book for Lotte. I can't believe we actually managed to live to see the day she laid off of the Nightfall series." – Sucy remarked as she led Akko over to one of the mall's book shops. Oftentimes, the violette wondered just how Akko can continue going as cheerfully as she usually did, considering that the japanese witch's pregnant belly was supposed to slow her down at least a tiny bit, not to mention that she would complain about back pains and soreness a lot more often during the second trimester rather than now. Perhaps she might have gotten used to the extra weight by now.

Or not, as a couple steps from the mall plan stand, Akko groaned in pain and clutched her back once more.

"Wow, Aiko's certainly being quite a handful, ain't she…" – Akko remarked, referring to her as-of-yet unborn child. It seems that the couple decided to settle on that particular name, as while initially Sucy would remark that this name sounds a little too unoriginal, now she seemed more used to it, and they decided that they might just as well go with it.

"Alright, sit down for a bit. I think your back's been putting up with this for long enough." – Sucy certainly had a point, considering that Akko didn't even so much as stop to sit down for at least a tiny while, only slowing down to take a breather every now and then. And the brunette wasn't going to protest against it anyway, quietly complying as she sat down next to the alchemist on one of the mall benches.

However, Sucy felt like this wasn't nearly enough, and decided she might as well help Akko alleviate her back pain a bit. As the violette went on to undo her wife's coat to give her a slight shoulder rub, however, she heard someone clear their throat right behind them and subsequently remark: "You two are surprisingly forward, you know."

Oh, that voice was just too difficult to **not** recognize. And sure enough, as both girls turned back slightly to look at the person standing behind them, their suspicions were confirmed.

"Oh, hi Diana!" – Akko greeted in her usual chipper tone, while Sucy just rolled her eyes back and continued on with her procedure, beginning to rub Akko's shoulders to alleviate her pain a bit.

"I take it that your burden is leading to quite a bit of discomfort, isn't it?" – The blonde remarked as she sat down next to the couple. While at first neither of them paid attention to it, it took just a few moments to notice that something's…Changed about Diana. And sure enough, Sucy's suspicions were further confirmed when Diana undid her coat for a moment.

"Huh. I guess Akko's not the only one stuck with a bun in the oven here, is she now." – Sucy remarked as she looked over Diana's small but noticeable baby bump, indicating that she was at least three months in. Akko took a few moments to comprehend her wife's words and gave a few quizzical looks over at the blonde until…

"Ohhh… Well, congrats to the mother-to-be, then!" – The asian witch remarked as she turned around and gave Diana a friendly hug. – "I didn't think you'd actually get around to having children until about another year or so!"

"Let's just say that, since my and Constanze's family seems to be stable now, we decided to take things a little further." – The blonde remarked as she attempted to pry the ever-so-affectionate brunette off of herself. And while normally Sucy would be more than a little upset with Akko showing such affection to anyone else, she was also quite used to the japanese witch's rather odd contact boundaries, and found her disregard for others' personal space more amusing than annoying over the years. If anything, the only reason Sucy was slightly annoyed at the situation was that Akko just interrupted her own massage procedure for no good reason. As for Diana, there was something else that bothered the violette about her…

"Hang on, by just what means did you get yourself "witched up", through? After all, I don't recall you ordering any of the potions that are normally used for the deed. " – The filipino witch remarked, pulling Akko back into position to continue on with her massage.

"Well, the Cavendish family has it's own ways. The Heir's Ritual, to be specific." – The blonde replied, looking off into the distance as she was seemingly waiting for someone else to show up, presumably Constanze – after all, for all her assertive nature, even Diana wouldn't want to go off shopping all alone in her current state. After looking back and seeing Akko's confused expression and Sucy's skeptically raised eyebrow, she elaborated: "Long story short, in most noble witch families, there exists a ritual that allows the bloodline to persist onward even if the current heir or heiress doesn't have a more "traditional" partner, so to speak. I was on the receiving end, while Constanze contributed a taglock necessary for the ritual, and, well, there I am. "

"I'm fairly certain it was supposed to be used in case the current heir or heiress was infertile, not for the sake of preserving a bloodline despite the current heir's sexual orientation." – Sucy remarked, giving out her usual toothy grin as she finished speaking, prompting Diana to silently roll her eyes while Akko giggled at the whole thing.

Before the trio got to continue on with their conversation, it wasn't long before someone else showed up…

"Hey, all the familiar witches here, huh?" – A certain redhead remarked as she noticed the three witches from not too far away, with a familiar ginger girl following right behind her.

"Greetings, Amanda and Lotte O'Neill." – Just about everyone by this point was used to Diana's rather formal greetings, so there wasn't any exasperated groans sent the blonde's way.

After both girls greeted back, Akko was rather quick to ask: "You girls are gift shopping today too, huh?"

"For the most part, I guess. Although, the gifts we'd usually get each other are not exactly of the type to be found in mundane malls. We're here mostly for some usual holiday necessities. And, eh, to get a gift for Lavender while we're at it." – Amanda answered, the name "Lavender" referring to her and Lotte's adoptive daughter. – "What about you?"

Before Akko had a chance to speak up, Sucy shut her mouth with her hand and remarked: "Eh, mostly the same deal – just the holiday necessities. As for the gifts – you know full well we prefer to get them for each other in advance. And you, Diana?"

"Mostly the same, considering that Constanze and I rarely get each other anything. By the way, we're not going to be having any holiday banquets this year. Let's just say that my relatives will be visiting this year, so it's going to be just a family dinner, and leave it at that." – While Diana tried to keep some respect for her aunt and cousins, it was rather difficult considering quite the animosity going on throughout the family. And most of Diana's close friends who got acquainted with the rest of her family at least once certainly knew how the blonde's relatives were like… Which led to quite a bit of brutal honesty.

"Good on us, I don't want to hear an entire lecture on which of the dozen slightly different forks I should use for this, and which one for that, all over again." – Akko remarked, remembering full well her difficulty with those full arrays of cutlery, while Sucy just quietly nodded in confirmation.

"Yeah, and I don't want to have to hear at least a dozen of comments from Merrill or Maril about the "lineage" of their current guests, including me and Lotte." – Amanda seconded, with Lotte adding a quiet "No offense" as her wife finished speaking, with Akko nodding again while Sucy deadpanned: "Heard plenty assumptions about my lineage from everyone else already."

"It's alright. We all know how it is with my relatives. With the way these three are, it's little wonder why the family's reputation been less than stellar until Constanze and I began working to change that." – Diana responded, once again sighing and wondering to herself just when Constanze was going to show up, as they were already separated for quite a while now.

And speak of the quiet German, there she was, returning from the grocery section and carrying at least a few full bags of ingredients for varying meals, as well as having some other bags on her already.

"Finally showed up, huh?" – Amanda remarked as the quiet German girl walked over to the group and put both her bags down for a couple moments.

"Sorry for offloading the groceries on to you, dear." – Diana apologized while Constanze stood there, trying to catch her breath.

"No big deal." – The navy-haired girl replied, giving her wife a hug.

"Make that two thirds of our main nine to have showed up here." – Amanda remarked, then looked around for a bit and, turning towards Diana, asked: "Speaking of which, how are Hannah and Barbera doing so far? We were all kinda out of touch with them lately, especially considering they moved over to Wedinburgh quite a while ago."

"They're doing alright so far. They did have to deal with some medical problems their daughters had, but nothing too major." – Diana replied as Constanze let go of her.

"I guess it was wrong of us to think that these two wouldn't last even two years. If they could, they'd probably live together for several lifetimes over." – Sucy mused in her usual tone, prompting quite a few laughs from Amanda and Akko.

"Speaking of the "absentees", I heard Jasminka decided to move over from Russia to somewhere else entirely just a couple months ago, but she didn't quite elaborate where she was emigrating to. Anyone have any idea on her whereabouts?" – Akko asked, soon sensing that Sucy had let go of her shoulders for the time being.

"First off, it's "immigrating"." – Diana groaned, a bit surprised that Akko still had her occasional slippages despite having had known English near-perfectly for several years over.

"Second, she moved all the way over to Canada. Something about the weather being the same, but the locals being more tolerant of those like her. She didn't really bother with the whole story, but I guess it's not too hard to see where she was going with this. " – Amanda explained.

"Considering how much of a bigot-filled hellhole her homeland is-" – Seems like it was Sucy's turn to get interrupted, as Akko immediately elbowed her in the side, prompting a deadpan "Just stating the obvious."

And with that, the conversation trailed off to a bit of awkward silence until…

"So… I think we all still have some other things left to buy, don't we?" – Lotte remarked, attempting to alleviate the uneasy quietness and looking over at her shopping list.

"Whoa, hang on there a second, honey! Don't you think that this isn't the way to go off with this reunion? We just talked for a bit, and then we just run off in different directions all over again? That just plain won't do!" – Amanda protested, fully confident in that at least someone might agree with her. And, well, at least no one seemed to voice their disagreement. Or at least **complete** disagreement, that is.

"Well, sure, but do you have any bright ideas on the matter?" – Sucy retorted, not too keen on the whole idea due to Amanda's lack of specifics.

"I dunno, maybe go over to a some sort of café or coffee shop, sit down for a cup of coffee – or tea, if that's what one would prefer – and perhaps talk about something else?" – The redhead replied, shrugging.

"There's actually a café not too far from here. I suppose I speak for everyone when I say we need a quick coffee break. Or, for at least two of the people here, a tea break." – Diana remarked.

"And here I thought you'd never come anywhere near a mall café, what with you only visiting those fancy as heck restaurants and all." – Sucy deadpanned, although this time there wasn't much of a reaction to her words.

"Several years already past, and you still have the same presumptions…" – The blonde groaned out in frustration. Well, at least everyone else agreed to her proposal before that.

* * *

The "coffee break" was going relatively quiet. The most anyone ordered was just a cup of either coffee or tea, except Akko, who decided to at least have a slice of cheesecake to go with her drink.

There was quite a bit of casual talk going on throughout the group, with the main subjects being either how everyone's life was going right now, or memories of their student years.

"And don't get me started on the cleanup costs for when Constanze graduated. In the end, the remaining staff just went "screw it" and remade the whole damn place into a techmaturgy section!" – Amanda remarked, going off of the stories from after their graduation for the time being.

"For all her violation of academy rules, I have to admit that my wife's enthusiasm in techmaturgy certainly helped us all on more than one occasion. " – Diana added, taking another quiet sip, to which the German girl she spoke of just quietly nodded and did the same.

"Speaking of which, I have to admit, it was quite the sight when I found out that you guys did get together after all! There I was, walking over to Constanze's lab to apologize to you, and next thing I see-"

"TMI, Akko. No need to embarrass neither the stick-in-the-mud nor the Miss Laconic any further. " – Sucy interrupted, tugging at the brunette's shoulder. As Akko realized just what she was about to tell, she preferred to just jam her mouth shut with the remaining spoonful of her cheesecake for the time being.

"Speaking of which, the whole academy certainly had a field day with that old "Diasukko" debacle back in the day, didn't it?" – Lotte remarked, trying to divert the conversation elsewhere.

"Yeah, and it was **real** funny how it led to an accident that almost resulted in a _yurei_ in England of all places. " – Akko retorted, not really wanting to go over the subject.

"Hey, at the very least, everything just resolved itself. You guys stopped trying to tear each other's hair out, and Akko just went on with her choice. No losses from any of this, either, even if the end result was just one letter away from what Akko's mentioned. " – Amanda added, trying to lighten the mood.

"That being said, I do have to admit that both Sucy and I acted quite irrational during that time. I suppose it was just our raging hormones getting the best of us." – Diana stated, apparently having had finished her cup of tea.

"Yeah, I guess they were also at fault for the school nearly ending with another documented case of a witchsplat." – Sucy deadpanned, looking off to the side.

"At least it was all resolved peacefully." – Constanze chimed in.

"And no one's regretting their choices so far." – Lotte added.

After a quick bout of laughter, everyone went back to somewhat different conversation subjects – mostly talking about things like how their jobs were going on so far, what events happened in their life lately, all that.

After a few minutes, however, everyone decided they might as well go back to their usual shopping, although at least this time, everyone had a bit of assistance in the matter from one another, and it wasn't too long before everyone parted ways, going back to their respective homes… Or they would have, if…

* * *

"Okay… I think everyone's in just the right position – except you, Suce, but I'm gonna fix that real quick!"

Akko had insisted on taking a commemorative photo for the year, so she couldn't help but conjure up one of those instant-photo cameras just for that purpose. Seems like she really was the type to bring her wand along just for such occasions.

"Admittedly, her conjuration skills are quite the far cry from her academy years' magic skills in general" – Diana whispered to Constanze, who had her left hand sorta wrapped around the blonde's waist. The German witch's sole comment was "Hopefully the photos won't dissipate randomly."

"Come on, you guys. She's a dummy, yes, but she's my dummy. So only I am allowed to joke at her expense." – Sucy deadpanned, eliciting Constanze to remark: "No jokes, just observations."

Meanwhile, Amanda and Lotte, who stayed just slightly off to the side to still be part of the resulting picture, with Lotte kneeling so that Amanda was basically leaning on the ginger's shoulders, didn't really feel like chiming into the conversation, but Lotte couldn't help but wonder aloud: "Do you think we should have let Lavender come on with us?"

"Come on, Lotte, she herself said she hates shopping, even if it's for gifts and Christmas necessities – and in case of the former, she said she kind of wanted it to be a surprise anyway. If anything, I think we did her a favor by not letting her tag along." – The redhead replied, trying to reassure her wife. It seemed to have worked, as the only thing that Lotte uttered was a quiet "Well, if that's how you want to think of it" as she continued waiting patiently for Akko to set the camera up.

After Akko had set the timer, she waddled over to where Sucy stood and positioned herself so that she was standing just to her side, with them holding hands as they finished repositioning. Midway through the timer, Diana couldn't help but turn towards these two and ask: "Are you sure the photos aren't going to end up dissipating together with the camera after the conjuration spell ends?"

"Oh no-no-no, I made **absolute** sure of it." – Akko reassured, with Sucy adding in her usual deadpan tone: "Same assumptions after several years, huh?"

Diana just sighed and looked back in the direction of the camera.

Moments before the camera went off, however, Sucy couldn't help but give Akko a slight kiss on the cheek… Timing it right for when the photo was taken.  
 **  
**It was only natural that a single collective scream, followed by an outright signature shroom-eating grin courtesy of the witch it was aimed at.

_**"Sucy!"** _

**(To be continued in Part 2)**


	9. Holidays ang Gifts - Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> On New Year's Eve, Sucy and Akko prefer to spend the night quietly by the fireplace. When gift time comes up, while they didn't have to go to particularly great lengths to get each other particularly good gifts, it still seems that they still made sure that their gifts for one another would at least be memorable...

"You know what I enjoy about New Year's Eve the most?"

It was late evening. Sucy and Akko were currently in their living room, relaxing on the couch just across from the fireplace. The brunette was lying so that she was partially sitting on her wife's lap while her head rested on the couch's armchair, while the alchemist herself was just quietly sitting on the couch and leaning on the aforementioned armchair, giving Akko a few gentle belly rubs every now and then with her free hand.

"Is it because it's an opportunity to spend more time with your loved ones, right?" – Sucy lovingly asked back, to which Akko giggled and replied: "Exactly, sugar."

"Funny how we always end up on the same page when it comes to such questions, huh." – The violette deadpanned.

"I guess it's just that, we've been together for so long-"

"That it's gotten to the point where we unconsciously finish each other's sentences." –Sucy interrupted, prompting another giggle from Akko.

"Yeah, exactly that. And we're certainly going to be lovers 'till the end, right?" – Akko asked, her question being entirely rhetorical, for she already knew the answer.

The alchemist also decided that words were unnecessary for this, and gave her wife a light kiss on the forehead as if to answer her question. After the kiss, Sucy figured that they've been sitting near the fireplace for quite a while now, and took a look over at the grandfather clock not too far away.

11 PM and half an hour. Well, she figured she might as well get up and-

"Oh! I almost forgot! Silly me, just cuddling with you like this and completely forgetting about my gift for you! I'll be right back!" – And before Sucy could warn Akko to take it easy and not run, the brunette, naturally, ran right off.

"I swear, with how much vigor Akko has, she could probably run a marathon even overdue with quintuplets." - Sucy thought to herself. Groaning, the violette looked off somewhere off to the side, then back at the fireplace. This one was kept lit by the same fire spirit that usually stayed back at the fire pit at the terrace – the little thing had to be relocated to the fireplace during winter, as being buried in snow was far from pleasant for the flame creature.

Before Sucy's thoughts would trail off to some odd metaphors or something, Akko ran back into the room, breathing heavily and clutching something in her hands.

"Here! I know that these were usually a subject of many jokes whenever I asked you what kind of gift you wanted, but I got this one for real! I even filled it up with some dried herbs as part of the experiment, too!"

The only thing that the violette saw in Akko's hands was a small, likely empty pouch. What was that girl even going on about? Hang on…

As if to see that Akko wasn't fooling her, she stuck her hand inside the pouch. Not only did she manage to reach much further in than she logically should have, but after feeling up some crunching dried herbs, Sucy knew that Akko wasn't kidding.

"A… A legitimate **bottomless alchemical pouch?!** " – This was one of the few times that Sucy's usual deadpan tone of voice was not present, as she was genuinely surprised. – "I… I was just joking all these times, and yet you…"

"It was kinda difficult to get, really. Frankly, I had to chip in at least a part of my life savings into it aside from the gift money we were saving up for the holidays. But, heh, hopefully we avoided the whole "Gift of the Witches" kind of thing, huh? I mean, you didn't have to sell your collection of rare and forbidden alchemical ingredients to get me a proper gift… Did you?" – Akko's tone as she spoke repeatedly shifted – from somewhat guilty, to cheerful, to slightly tense.

Sucy's expression of shock didn't shift the tiniest bit, but the moment she took her hand out of the pouch and took it from Akko's hands, she couldn't help but tear up.

"Nah. Frankly, I didn't spend a single coin on this one. Just needed to ask around for a bit, and suddenly…" – The violette took her wand out and forced some sort of package from underneath the shelves nearby.

The package was small enough, so Akko was also confused at first. The moment she opened it however, she let out a long, drawn-out gasp of surprise.

"But… I heard those were called off mere days after my retirement from my role as the **Lightning Lily** …"

What she found in the package was one of the few bits of unreleased Lightning Lily merchandise that was thought to have been canned completely after Akko resigned from her position as a performer. Specifically, a pendant adorned with the symbol associated with her stage persona – a lily flower that had a stylized lightning for a stalk. Even better, the colors matched perfectly – the petals were done in rose gold, matching the puce color of the petals on the emblem, the center of the flower was a ruby, and the lightning part was cast from silver.

"Sucy… How did you… Where did you…" – Akko felt her eyes tearing up in joy as she tried to get at least one coherent sentence out of herself just to express her gratitude towards Sucy.

"Not gonna lie – this is where the entirety of my gift money **would** have gone… Had it not been for a certain convenient truth, that is. So I ended up only paying a nominal cost for this. And, eh, a private potion order for free. Not like that one used particularly costly ingredients anyway. "

Akko didn't really need Sucy to say anymore, as she went on to hug the violette, tears in her eyes, and replied: "You're the best spouse I could ever have, Suce."

"Besides, I think this might be something to tell our kid a story on later, eh? About how you aspired to be a magical performer during your teen years, but eventually realized that sometimes, the journey really is more important than the destination when it comes to certain lifelong dreams." – Sucy lightly stroked Akko's belly to emphasize her point, and was shortly met with a light kick.

The duo didn't notice that, while they were busy chatting, it was already near midnight. Only after they heard the enchanted clock in the living room chime did they decide to go back there.

Right on time, as just when the clock was ringing off it's last chimes…

"Well…Happy New Year to you, Akko." – Sucy remarked as she went on to give Akko a soft kiss. As the violette broke the kiss, she placed her hand on the brunette's baby bump and added:

**"And Happy New Year to you as well, little one."**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for a particularly short chapter. I get the feeling that I should have merged the two chapters and gone on with it, but the previous one already exceeded my usual word count, so...


	10. Awakenings and Pondering

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sucy gets woken up in the middle of the night by Akko for the worst of reasons. Mercifully enough, the problem seems to resolve itself, and the next day, the couple ponders some questions about their as-of-yet-unborn kid.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Had to reupload the chapter because AO3 still insists on keeping the chapters' upload date as way back in April. Nice.

Waking up to her wife's pained moaning was definitely not what Sucy needed. Especially in the middle of a chilly January night.

"Sucy…" – Akko groaned out painfully.

The violette groggily lifted herself up at least a tiny bit, just so that she could at least reach for the desk lamp lightswitch. Akko was probably having another one of those sudden pains, she should be-

"Suce… I think I'm…"

As Sucy's eyes adjusted to the darkness, she noticed that that Akko was already sitting upright, clutching her stomach. Something was wrong…

"Sucy, I'm going into labor!" – Akko shouted when she saw that Sucy woke up.

**What?!**

That… That wasn't possible. Akko was just her eighth month in, it couldn't… Oh Nine, it wasn't one of those cases of premature labor, was it?

Sucy immediately jumped off her bed in outright panic, and rushed over to the wall phone – considering both Sucy's and Akko's cellphones were charging elsewhere, the violette basically rushed over to the nearest available one, in this case being the aforementioned wall-mounted phone.

"Don't worry, Akko, I just need to call the ambulance. Hold on for a moment and you should be fine." – Sucy reassured, although she was more than a little worried that the aforementioned ambulance might not even make it to their place in time – considering how far away they were from the nearest hospital, it was going to take so long that Akko would probably end up giving birth right there and then…

But still, she had to try, right? Sucy reached for the phone, and was just about ready to type out 911 until…

"W-wait… I… It's just some false contractions. I'm… I'm fine." – Akko remarked, her breathing slowly calming down as she spoke, subsequently having Sucy calm down by a bit as well.

The violette stood there for a few moments, the idle sounds of the phone she held being outright ear-grating, until she snapped out of it and put it back, then went back to her and Akko's bed, lying down next to the brunette.

"Third time already this month." – Sucy deadpanned as she lightly rubbed her spouse's baby bump.

"Sorry. You know I always panic when this happens. Plus I was still sleeping, so…" – Akko remarked guiltily.

"Anyone else would probably remember what false contractions are like by now." – Sucy remarked, her tone not suggesting any resentment or negativity – in fact, the only emotion one could read in the witch's voice was simple tiredness. The alchemist was already used to Akko's shenanigans by now anyway, so she just couldn't be mad at the brunette.

"I've probably made you worry more than necessary, didn't I?" – The asian witch's tone sounded outright dejected as she asked that.

Sucy let out a long, tired sigh, and briefly ceased rubbing her wife's belly. Well, she wasn't falling asleep anytime soon anyway, so she replied: "Akko, you ended up making me worry about you more than necessary ever since the very day we ended up in a relationship. "

"Oh…" – Akko looked a bit off to the side, not having much of a response on the matter. Seeing that she slightly upset her spouse, Sucy moved a bit closer over to her and replied: "No need to get so upset about it, dear. It's just that I love you a little too much that I end up worrying about you every time something happens to you."

"Heh. When you put it that way, it almost sounds reassuring." – The brunette remarked, her voice sounding a little drowsy.

"And, well, now I have two people to worry about for the price of one." – Sucy replied, going back to rubbing Akko's belly to emphasize her point. – "So I guess it's no surprise that I also ended up panicking a bit. "

"Not as much as I did, I guess. Even if those were simply false contractions, I was still scared out of my wits." – The brunette guiltily responded, drooping her head down. – "I'm sorry I've had you worried so much."

"Hey, you know it all too well – I can't be mad at you. I guess you were right when you said some things just never change. " – As Sucy said that, she reached over to hug her spouse. As the brunette was released from Sucy's embrace, she couldn't help but yawn – it was still the middle of the night, and they both were still quite sleepy.

"I'm so sleepy…" – Akko stated the obvious as she fell back down onto her pillow. Sucy nodded and gave her a soft goodnight kiss on the cheek, remarking: "Luckily, I have a day off tomorrow, so I won't end up accidentally waking you. Goodnight, I guess."

"Goodnight…" – The brunette responded as she yawned one more time and drifted back off to sleep. Sucy just lied there in her usual pose for a few more moments, before also giving up and letting the overbearing sleepiness claim her as well, falling soundly asleep.

* * *

Later that morning, after both Sucy and Akko were done with their usual morning routine – a quick shared shower, well-done breakfast courtesy of Sucy, all that – the couple was quietly lying at the couch within their living room, them both busy with nothing more than just being couch potatoes for the time being. Sucy could afford to do that – she already had quite a sizable batch of potions prepared in advance for the next work week, and thus could allow herself to just spend some quality time with her wife, who, at the moment, was lying with her head in the violette's lap, as the Filipino witch quietly caressed her hair with her right hand.

Even though Akko had a relatively good night's sleep – even if both she and Sucy had to sleep all the way up to 10 AM, no less – she still couldn't help but feel a little drowsy as she lied with her significant other like this. Then again, considering that Akko was in her third trimester, it was no surprise that she would still feel drowsy ever now and then. The winter season certainly didn't help matters. Before she ended up drifting off to sleep, however…

"Remind me, Akko…" – Sucy's voice snapped the brunette out of her daze, as she looked around hurriedly before looking back up at the Filipino witch.

"Huh?"

"Why are we bothering with pulling another living thing into this filthy world?" – Sucy continued, her usual cynicism quite evident in her voice.

"Hard to say, really. I guess it's just that – kids make the world a lot more bright and cheerful, don't they? " – Akko gave out a possible answer to her spouse's question, eliciting a chuckle from the other witch.

"Still doesn't change the fact that the world sure is one nasty place." – The violette added, staring over at the lit fireplace.

"Hey, it's not all that bad. There are more goods than bads about life, and we know it all too well." – As Akko said that, she sat back upright and nuzzled her nose against Sucy's cheek, continuing: "Especially if you've got someone to have all the good times with."

"Heh. Something's telling me our kiddo is going to be just as optimistic as her mother." – Sucy replied, giving out her ever-so-rare genuine smile as she said that.

"And maybe even just as smart as her… Other mother." – Akko added, taking back her usual lying position. There were a few more moments before the brunette spoke up again: "Now that I think of it, this whole "mother-other mother" thing feels a little weird. Is she just going to call us both "mom"? How do we distinguish which one of us she's calling for, or referring to in a conversation?"

"Well, I don't have much bright ideas on the matter… Have her use different-language words for "mom" so that we avoid any confusion, maybe? She'd call me "mom" and you… Whatever Japanese word there is for "mom", I guess." – Sucy remarked, shrugging.

"I don't think that would work out so well – after all, her calling me " _haha_ " would be a bit too awkward to any side English speaker. " – As Akko said that, she scratched the back of her head as per her usual manner, giving out her typical awkward grin.

"Maybe have her refer to you as "mom", and me as " _ina_ ", then? That could work. I guess. Unless "ina" translates to something awkward in Japanese." – Sucy replied in her usual neutral tone.

"Nah, it's fine. Actually, _ina_ is one of the more common surnames in Japan, so… We're going full bilingual, I guess." – A few moments after Akko finished that last sentence, both she and Sucy couldn't help but laugh out loud at where their conversation went.

"Wow. We went from philosophy to genetics, and ended on linguistics. Way to go." – Sucy remarked, still snickering a bit as she said that.

"I guess that's what you get with two bored parents-to-be." – Akko replied, giggling as she finished her phrase.

"Well, I sure can't ever get bored with you around. After all, you always add a touch of whimsy to my life with your presence alone." – Sucy reached over a bit to give Akko a kiss on the cheek, before pulling back and running her hand over to the brunette's belly, giving her a light rub and being met with another kick from the Japanese witch's yet-unborn child, which prompted another gentle smile from the mauve-haired alchemist.

" **And I'm sure I won't have any time to be bored after Aiko is born.** "


	11. Chance Meetings and Finality

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sucy meets a certain someone on the way to work, and, due to contrived coincidences, that someone ends up having to be an unwitting midwife for Akko not too long after.

"Are you sure you'll be alright, honey?"

Ah, February. That particular month when winter launches all the heavy artillery it still has left, sometimes to the point where it's still snowing even in March. This particular year was no exception, with snowstorms happening almost every day, today's weather being just as unpleasant as, well, nearly every other day beforehand. And unfortunately, despite the down weather, Sucy still had to work that day over at her potion shop, much to Akko's disappointment. Not helping matters was the fact that the violette's wife was almost due, and Sucy's worries for the brunette and their child were skyrocketing.

"Aw, you're worrying too much, Suce! Just because I'm nearly due doesn't mean I'm going to go into labor right today or anything like that! I'll be fine! " – Akko remarked, giving her mauve-haired wife a kiss on the cheek a moment after. Even though Sucy felt that her wife was tempting fate way too much, she still gave the brunette's baby bump a few light pats before remarking: "Still, just remember that if anything's wrong – call me at once. I should be able to get home in time. "

"I will. Have a nice day at work, honey! " – The asian witch gave Sucy one more light kiss on the cheek before the mauve-haired girl walked off and closed the door behind herself.

Just after a few steps' worth of walking, Sucy noticed a certain familiar someone not too far away. That wavy two-tone blonde hair was too easily distinguishable even during a heavy snowstorm.

"Oh, hello there, Sucy. I take it you're heading over to your usual work space, are you? " – Diana greeted as soon as she managed to get a better look at the other witch coming her way – the snowstorm was borderline thickening with each moment that passed.

"Didn't expect to see you all the way out here. What brings you all the way over to this humble town, Cavendish?" – Sucy remarked, pulling her hood over her face as the snowstorm proved to be downright overbearing.

"Just figured I'd pay you two a visit. I've gotten a day off for today due to some shifts in the Academy schedule, so, as you can see- Ugh…" – Diana immediately reached for her wand and quickly cast a silent spell to at least partially deter the incoming intense snowstorm, making it so that the overbearing snow avoided a small area around her and Sucy for a short time. – "So I figured I'd pay you two a visit in the meantime. I take it that Akko is currently back at your home, is she?"

"Exactly. You may drop by if you want to, I guess. Just remember – Akko's nearly due, so call me right up if anything happens. " – As Sucy said that, she soon walked over to where her shop was, and immediately shut the door upon entering, while Diana continued onward, trudging through the snow.

In the meantime, Akko figured she might as well be at least a little productive, and decided to do some cleaning around the house. Luckily, being a far more experienced witch than in her academy years, Akko only really needed to fire off a few cleaning spells… Problem is, one of said spells was designed to literally take out all the dirt and dust out of the house, and thus…

Well, let's just say that when Diana knocked on the door, she was immediately met by something that could be best summed up as a miniature dust devil coming her way full-force, which dissipated the moment it hit her and left the blonde's hair as quite a mess, not to mention gave her a fair share of dust and dirt stains on her coat.

"Oh, hey Diana! Didn't expect you to-"

"Show up, yes, I know." – The blonde remarked as she entered the house and closed the door behind herself, later firing off a quick spell to fix her hair and dust her coat off. – "I've gotten a day off today, and I figured I might as well check up on you. How are you doing so far?"

"Eh, I'd say it's alright. The most I had to worry about lately was just a few false contractions, and maybe the occasional back aches, but other than that, I'm alright!" – Akko replied as she went over to the kitchen, Diana waddling in right after her. – "What about you? How's it feeling five months in?"

"I knew you were going to bring that up. " – The blonde replied, chuckling and eliciting a giggle from Akko as well. As the blonde ran her hand over her a bit less sizable belly, she continued: "Well, it's nothing too bad. A few occasional backaches, but nothing major otherwise."

"You've certainly had it much easier than I do, huh. How's Constanze doing lately, by the way? She's not overworking herself, is she?" - Akko continued as she went over to make some tea. As the blonde sat down at the kitchen table, she replied: "Constanze's been doing particularly well with her work lately. She even managed to get another of her inventions approved by the company, too, so things are certainly going well financially. Who knows, maybe techmaturgical appliances might get even mroe widespread in the following years. "

"I guess our respective spouses' work ain't so different from each other's after all – they both always have something new to discover and are always willing to experiment!" – Akko remarked, smiling as she served Diana some tea. While the blonde took a slight sip, the other witch continued: "Speaking of which, I guess it's a no-brainer Sucy had to lay off her experiments for the time being – after all, she wouldn't want to end up hurting me or our child."

"I see you two are really taking your parenthood quite seriously. That's quite the step up from your irresponsible academy years, I must admit. Constanze's also been worrying sick about me sometimes. I swear, whenever she gets a day off, she won't even let me off the couch or out of bed for the entirety of the day! " – Taking a cursory glance into her cup after slightly sampling the tea, the blonde remarked: "On an unrelated note – you might have oversweetened the tea. While I know you like your tea sweet, I'm more of a mild type. "

"Oh, no worries! I'll get you another cup! " – And before the blonde could tell Akko that it won't be so necessary, the asian witch walked over to the cupboard…

Only to suddenly stop and clutch her stomach and fall on her knees, her expression suggesting equal parts shock and pain.

"Are you alright? " – Diana asked, seeming quite concerned, as she ran over to the brunette. After taking some time to at least barely catch her breath, Akko feebly uttered: "I… I think… **My waters just broke.** "

By the Nine, of all times for that to happen, it had to be **now?!**

"Oh dear… Akko, just… Sit down for a bit, or something, I'll go over and call the ambulance, I'll be right-"

"The nearest hospital… Is three hours' worth of driving away from here… Just… Call… Sucy…" – Akko grunted out, struggling to get back to her feet and to waddle over to the living room couch so that she at least wouldn't have to take the pain up standing. Diana quietly complied with the brunette's request and rushed over to the wall-mounted phone to call the asian witch's spouse.

Meanwhile, the violette was having quite the lively day, to say the least – clients were basically flooding in, buying a whole variety of things, be it medicine against various mundane illnesses or potions that existed to solve certain matters that no ordinary, non-magical medicine could not. And just as one of the more familiar students from Luna Nova, a particular green-haired girl, was about to voice her order, the desk phone rang at the worst of times.

"Be right back." – Sucy remarked as she reached over for the phone. And sure enough, she almost immediately heard Diana's distressed voice on the other end: "Sucy, no time to explain! Akko's going into labor, and she told me to call you for some reason… Instead of dialing 911, but that doesn't really-"

"Get her over to the bedroom and wait until I get back. I'll be there as soon as possible." – The violette slammed the phone back down and, turning over to her client, remarked: "Sorry, we're closing early today. I've got an emergency at home that needs to be taken care of as soon as possible."

"Oh, it's alright, I… I understand." – The younger witch lightly bowed and headed over to exit the shop, and as soon as she left, Sucy rushed right past her and back over to her house, not even turning around as she fired off a quick silent spell to shut the door and change the usual plaque to "EMERGENCY CLOSING".

As Sucy barged into her own home, she saw that Diana was already busy helping Akko off the couch, despite the blonde's own "burden" weighing her down quite a bit, though not nearly as much as Akko.

"Alright, hold up, I'm taking care of the rest from here. Constanze wouldn't like it if you were to get a miscarriage from all the heavy lifting, you know. " – Sucy remarked as soon as she entered the living room and rushed over to help Akko, with Diana letting go of the brunette for the time being, though the British girl did mutter something along the lines of "common misconception" as she did.

"Su…Cy… You're here…Auggh… Dang it, it hurts like- Auuuugh!" – Akko was visibly cringing from pain every now and then, so Sucy knew all too well that she and Diana don't have much time to waste, helping Akko get over to the upstairs bedroom. In actuality, Sucy was doing most of the heavy lifting, practically carrying Akko in her arms, while the most that Diana did was merely keep up a spell that, despite not being strong enough to lift Akko up completely, still lightened the load enough so that Sucy could lift Akko up with relative ease.

A few moments later, at the upstairs bedroom after a few necessary preparations with help from Diana, Sucy was basically left one on one with Akko, who was certainly going through quite the painful labor.

"Alright, now remember – just push every now and again, don't overexert yourself, and take deep breaths between each successive push. I know you can handle this, honey." – Sucy instructed, the only reply she got from Akko being a pained "uh-huh" as the brunette complied with her spouse's instructions.

Akko's pained grunts rang through the otherwise silent bedroom as the asian witch continued pushing. She knew all too well that the pressure was of both physical and psychological kind – she would certainly hate to mess something up and end up with an unhealthy baby. After all, she did read up quite a bit on – By the Nine, that **hurt** like hell!

"Okay, there it goes! Just a few more pushes, Akko! The baby's almost there! " – Sucy shouted out, her usual subdued tone of voice almost nonexistent for that moment, as Akko continued on with the process.

Just a few more pushes… Deep breath, push, some time to rest… Deep breath, a push, and a few more seconds to catch her breath…  
 **  
**"You're just about there, Akko! One! More! Push!" – And sure enough, with one more push, which felt a lot less painful than the previous ones, the deed was done. An infant's first scream rang through the room.

"You did it, Akko. You… Did it." – Sucy remarked, bringing up a pair of recently conjured pinking shears and cutting the newborn's umbilical cord. That was certainly a bit beyond the violette's usual comfort zone. 

"Th… There she is." – Akko remarked as Sucy handed the brunette her – no, **their** child. – "Well, Aiko… Welcome to this lovely world, I guess. " – The only response that Akko got from the little girl was another scream. Not that the brunette minded, as she lightly pressed the newborn to her chest and remarked: "Yeah…Not the best first impression, I know. "

"Still as silly as ever, even now. I guess some things never change even after such dramatic events. " – The asian witch's spouse remarked, giggling. Sure, from a side perspective, the situation was a little weird, but it wasn't like it mattered to the couple right now.

_**They really were a family now.  
** _

* * *

Later that day, after Diana helped Sucy and Akko take care of some other post-labor procedures before heading on home, the two proud parents were currently back over at their bedroom, with little Aiko currently wrapped in a typical mauve nappy and asleep right on Akko's chest, while Sucy was quietly watching the mother-daughter duo.

"So, she almost bit off your right boob, you say? She's only a few hours old, and she's taking after her _ina_ already, ain't she. " – Sucy remarked, feeling an odd sense of pride for the little bundle of life that was the end result of her and Akko's strange decision nine months ago.

"You know full well I'm exaggerating, Suce." – The brunette replied, giggling as she slowly rocked the infant in her arms. – "But yeah, something's telling me that breastfeeding is going to be even more painful than I thought."

"Hey, it's as you said, Akko – no need to worry. After what you were through in the past nine months, I'm more than sure we can pull on through anything – mundane or magical." – Sucy walked over to Akko and leaned in to give her a light kiss on the cheek, then took one more look at little Aiko, who was still peacefully sleeping.

"Yeah, yeah, breastfeeding's the least of my worries, I know. I mean, we've still got the documents stuff to go through, then there's learning to properly care for our baby, and-" – Before Akko could stretch that list to the heavens, Sucy quietly silenced her with her index finger and remarked: "Please, Akko. No need to be a moment-killer. All that matters at this very moment is, we're officially a full-blown family now, and the worst is already past, so let's just relax and enjoy the moment for now. "

"Yeah… I think you're right." – Akko remarked as she pressed little Aiko closer to herself, with Sucy giving the brunette a light embrace as well, placing her hand on Akko's.

_**Even the normally abrasive and thorny Sucy couldn't help but soften up every now and then, this moment being no exception.** _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew-whee! That fic was certainly quite the doozy! I apologize if this particular chapter feels rushed or anything like that - I ended up only finishing it halfway through by the time I was sent off to the hospital, and only got back to it a few days later. Hopefully I didn't mess the ending up too badly. And, eh, I hope this chapter's somewhat too-much-information moments aren't too deterring. I, eh... Had to delve a bit further than necessary for this one. Hope this doesn't warrant a rating change.   
> And, eh, I might probably write an epilogue chapter of sorts later, going into the Manbavaran-Kagari family's daily life after a slight timeskip. But other than that, it's finally done!


	12. Epilogue

"Mom! _Ina_! Get up! You promised we'd start my magic training today!"

Well, that was certainly a rough way to wake up for Sucy and Akko, that's for sure. Especially on one of those quiet Saturday mornings in May.

Slightly over half a decade passed since the couple's rather odd decision. It was rather hard to judge, but one thing was for certain – their child was certainly taking after both her mothers. While it was quite obvious that Aiko inherited Akko's near-boundless energy – since the moment she learned to walk, it was quite hard to get her to sit still for even a few moments – and her enthusiasm in magic as well, if her willingness to wake her parents up at 6 AM was any indication of just how strong said enthusiasm was, what took some seeing to was also the same kind of mischievousness that Sucy had. In winter, it was homing-enchanted snowballs that were thrown in such a way as to not let the unfortunate victim to see where they were coming from, and in summer, it was scaring some random passerbies with snakes creeping up from where they would least expect it. No unhealthy love for mushrooms, though, yet she didn't mind any mushroom-made meals all that much either.

As Akko woke up to the constant noise, as well as the feeling of some weight pressing down on her, she was almost immediately met with Aiko's excited red and blue eyes. Well, that sure was something to get up to.

"Ugh… Sure, Aiko-chan, but can't we at least take care of the necessary morning things first? I mean, things like taking a shower, having some breakfast, all that?" – Akko drowsily remarked.

"Aw…" – The little girl almost immediately pouted after hearing this from the brunette. – "But I wanna get to the magic training now!"

"Aiko… I think your mom has a point here. I mean, even if I am an early bird, I myself am half-awake, and could certainly use an extra hour of sleep. Or two, just to make it perfect. I'm not used to waking up so dang early on weekends. " – While Sucy certainly wasn't the type of person to sleep her butt off till 1 PM, she really needed some extra sleep to recover after a particularly hectic work week.

"Well, since I don't think I'll be going back to sleep all that easily, I might as well. Just please, wait in your room for a bit while I take a shower, will you, Aiko-chan?" – As Akko asked that, she lightly brushed her hand through her daughter's brown hair, making the younger girl's pouty expression shift to a smile as she giggled a bit at the sensation.

"Yes, mom! "– And with that said, Aiko ran off back over to her bedroom.

"Gee. She sure is a handful, ain't she?" – Sucy sleepily remarked, still in her usual sleeping position.

"We did bring this little bundle of energy into the world ourselves after all." – The brunette replied, grinning guiltily and chuckling afterwards. – "Can't say I'm regretting anything, though. After all, the most difficult phase is already well past us. And if you ask me, I think it's all completely worth it."

Sucy couldn't help but chuckle at that notion, as she leaned in to give Akko a kiss and remarked: "Guess we better get off our lazy backsides for now. Can't have Aiko waiting forever for her breakfast, right?"

"Something's telling me she's more worried about having to wait more than necessary to get to her training rather than whatever preceeds it." – The asian witch joked, getting up from her bed and Sucy following after her as well.

* * *

"You don't have to swing your wand so wildly, Aiko! I mean, I sure know that from all the misfires I've had because of this."

With the usual morning routine having been taken care of, it wasn't long until the two witches decided to get right on with their daughter's magic training. Currently, while Akko was busy teaching her daughter how to properly cast spells as it is, Sucy often chimed in with some occasional advice or snarky remarks about Akko's former magic problems. Not that the brunette really minded – if anything, her less-than-stellar spellcasting in her student years has long become the butt of many jokes between her and her wife.

"I dunno, mom, it just doesn't feel like I'm doing anything if I don't swing it hard enough!" – Aiko replied, sounding a little unsure.

"It's not about how strongly you swing your wand, but about how well you concentrate on your spell. Now, let's go over it again…" – Akko slightly repositioned her daughter's hand as to have her aim right at the bored-looking hamster – honestly, Sucy had no idea where Akko got that little critter from, but it wasn't like it mattered, as the hamster barely left it's cage most of the time, only ever taken out for spell experiments. – and continued: "Okay, first you repeat the spell. _Metamorphie Faciesse._ Then you lightly swish and flick your wand, pointing it right at the intended target – in our case, this little guy." – The aforementioned "little guy" yawned yet again.

"Alright… First I say the spell, then I swish and flick the wand. Okay, mom, I'll try." – And after Aiko said that, she almost immediately shouted "Metamorphie Faciesse!" at the top of her lungs, then just attempted to "lightly" swish and flick her wand… Only to send it flying, and the spell firing off randomly after the wand landed… With it somehow hitting the hamster anyway and giving it pink fur. Needless to say, the critter took a good look at itself and passed out with a squeak.

"Oh dear. You just gave the hamster a heart attack. And… Did you intend to paint it's fur pink?" – Akko asked, looking over at the critter and poking it with her finger just to make sure.

"I wanted him to have the same fur color as my _ina_ did… It's pretty close, is it? Is it?" – After seeing her mother's slightly worried look directed at the hamster, Aiko walked over to the little rodent lying on the table still and stared at it wide-eyed. – "Why did Bijou fall asleep?"

Sucy couldn't help but snicker at the situation as well, and fired off a quick silent spell. Not only did the hamster regain it's normal brown fur color, but it also jumped up and ran right back into it's cage… Even, amusingly enough, grabbing the door with it's paws and closing it behind itself.

" _Ina,_ why did you have to scare him?" – Aiko asked, sounding a little puzzled.

"I was just checking if he really was sleeping, is all." – Sucy remarked, shrugging. – "In any case, you're pulling off some spectacular results, especially for your age."

"Really?" – There it was again, that excited glitter in Aiko's eyes and that same smile.

"Yeah, but you still need better control and aiming. Once again, don't swing your wand so wildly! Just a light swish and flick." – As Akko said that, she picked up the training wand – a pretty basic wooden one with a smallish crystal core, designed for small-scale spellcasting. – and demonstrated the spell on the now-caged hamster: "Metamorphie Faciesse!"

After the glitter resulting from the spell cleared up a bit, the hamster was gone, and in it's place was a white bunny, looking around confusedly, but luckily not scared to the point of having another heart attack.

"Wow! I wanna do that too sometime! Such a _kawaii_ bunny!" – As Aiko approached the hamster cage, the former hamster immediately backed away into a corner. – "Aww… He's afraid of me."

"It will take a while of training before you can pull that off, and quite a bit of patience, Aiko. But don't worry, I know you'll be a great witch eventually!" – The older brunette gave her daughter a light hug as she said that. – "After all, remember what I always told you?"

" _ **A believing heart is your magic!**_ _"_ – Aiko recited, smiling and earning a chuckle from her mother as well. As for her _ina,_ Sucy figured she might as well not be left out and went in to give the duo a hug as well.

"Now, how about we go outside and continue our practice there? We'll continue on with some more basic spells, and then maybe take a walk around town for a bit. Maybe we'll even go over to your favorite playground later, Aiko-chan." – Akko said as she let go of her daughter and Sucy let go of them both.

"Oh! Yes, yes, I wanna go to the playground after we're done training!" – The little girl replied, practically bouncing with excitement.

"Alright, guess I have no other choice but to tag along, then. Let me know after you're done dressing her up, Akko." – And with that said, Sucy went on to her and Akko's bedroom to change into something a bit more comfortable for going outside.

* * *

Later on, at that one playground, while Aiko was busy playing with some other kids, both Sucy and Akko were quietly sitting over at a bench not too far away.

"It's a good thing we didn't give her a wand to go with – having every single parent here come to us to complain about their kid either being turned into a small animal or having lost some of their hair sure isn't something we'd need right now." – Sucy remarked, smiling as she looked over at Aiko playing catch with a few random girls.

"I'm pretty sure that if **I** were given a wand at preschool age, I'd probably be shooting sparkles left and right instead of any useful spells." – As Akko said that, her wife couldn't help but snicker at this, although she was quickly stopped by the brunette saying: "If my magic wasn't drained back then, that is."

"That's already well past you. As for Aiko – she's got nothing holding her back, and she already pulled off a successful Metamorphie spell, so I guess we know how well she'll do in practical magic. That being said, no one's to say that proper education won't be a tad too difficult for her." – Sucy remarked, still snickering at the recent memory of that pink-furred hamster fainting at the sight of it's own appearance.

"I don't know, Suce. Maybe it's a tad too early for us to be thinking about how well Aiko's going to fare when she ends up attending Luna Nova? After all, it'll be an almost full decade before that happens. " – The asian witch replied.

"Sure, but… We all know how quickly time flies, don't we?" – The alchemist remarked, looking off somewhere into the horizon. – "To think, all those years ago… All those years ago we met up on that random, insignificant bridge. Who would have thought that this meeting alone would lead all the way to us having a family now?"

"Well, you can't always predict everything. And we've always had pretty average Divination grades back in our academy years anyway."

"Even despite that, there's one thing we both can predict for sure…" – As Sucy said that, she gave her wife a light hug, and finished her trail of thought as she did:

" _ **Aiko has a very bright future ahead of her**_ _ **.**_ _"_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And with that, the fic's done for reals!
> 
> Let me just say, it was way too fun to write! My only problem with this particular chapter is that writing Aiko was a tad too difficult, as it was practically my first attempt at writing a child character ever. Hope I didn't end up writing her as too unrealistic. I imagine Aiko would have high inherent magic potential to the point of being able to successfully pull off some "unconscious" magic at preschool age, but some serious difficulties controlling said magic and using it as she would intend to. And I hope her dialogue is kinda sorta relatively fitting for her age? Anyway... 
> 
> Darky Out!
> 
> (Posting date is unintentional)


End file.
